SPEECHES  AND  PAPERS 


DELATING     TO 


THE     REBELLION 


AND    THE 


OVERTHROW  OF  SLAVERY. 


GEORGE   S.  BOUTWELL. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND   COMPANY. 

1867. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1867,  by 

GEORGE    S.   BOUTWELL, 

In  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


CAMBRIDGE. 
STEREOTYPED  AND  PRINTED  BY  JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON. 


• 


/VARREN. 


289  Washington  St. 
Boston. 


HEALD. 


Uolume 


RESPECTFULLY     DEDICATED     TO     MY     FELLOW-CITIZENS     OF     THE 
ANCIENT    TOWN    OF    GROTON, 

TO    WHOSE 

GENEROUS     AND     UNWAVERING     CONFIDENCE     AND     SUPPORT,  FOR 

MORE   THAN   A   QUARTER  OF   A   CENTURY,    I   AM    CHIEFLY 

INDEBTED     FOR     MY     OPPORTUNITIES     FOR 

PUBLIC    SERVICE. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEE  PAGK 

I.    JEFFERSON  :    Speech  delivered  on  the  Anniversary  of 

Jefferson's  Birthday 1 

II.    MR.  DOUGLAS  ;  POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY 9 

III.    SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE  FREE  LABORER,  OP 

PRODUCTION,  OF  BUSINESS,  AND  OF  THE  UNION     .      26 
TV.    SECESSION  :    an    Address    delivered    at    Charlestown, 

Mass.,  Jan.  8,  1861 61 

V.    CONCESSION  AND   COMPROMISE  :   Speech  delivered  hi 

the  Peace  Congress,  Feb.  18,  1861 88 

VI.  THE  CONSPIRACY,  ITS  PURPOSES  AND  POWER  :  Ad 
dress  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  of  Harvard 

University,  July  18,  1861 94 

VII.  EMANCIPATION,  ITS  JUSTICE,  EXPEDIENCY,  AND 
NECESSITY  :  an  Address  delivered  at  the  Treraont 

Temple,  Boston,  Dec.  16,  1861 123 

VIII.    OUR  DANGER  AND  ITS  CAUSE  :  From  the  "  Continental 

Monthly  "  for  February,  1862 159 

IX.    TREASON  THE  FRUIT  OF  SLAVERY  :  a  Speech  delivered 

in  the  Capitol  Grounds,  Washington,  July,  1862    .    .    175 

X.    NEW-YORK  ELECTION,  1862 180 

XI.  SUGGESTIONS  CONCERNING  THE  FURTHER  PROSE 
CUTION  OF  THE  WAR  :  "  Washington  Chronicle," 
February,  1863 189 

M 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEK  PAGE 

XII.  THE  POWER  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  TO  SUPPRESS  THE 
REBELLION  :  Speech  before  the  National  Union  League 
Association,  Washington,  June  16,  1863 216 

XIII.  CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY  :   Speech  in  the 

House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  19,  1864 239 

XIV.  THE  CONDUCT  OF  THE  WAR  :  "  National  Republican," 

Feb.  6,  1864 255 

XV.    SALE  OF  GOLD  :  Speech  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 

March  14,  1864 264 

XT  I.    PERSONAL    EQUALITY    AND    PUBLIC    PROSPERITY: 

Speech  delivered  at  Baltimore,  April  1,  1864   .    .    .    285 
XVII.    RIGHTS  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES:  Speech  delivered  in 

the  House  of  Representatives,  May  4,  1864    ....    300 
XVIII.    THE  ENROLMENT  OF  TROOPS  AND  THE  PROCLAMATION 
OF  EMANCIPATION:   Speech  in  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  June  25,  1864 330 

XIX.    CHICAGO   CONVENTION  OF  1864  :   Speech  at  Faneuil 

Hall,  Sept.  6,  1864 347 

XX.    ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  :  Eulogy  delivered  before  the  City 

Council  and  Citizens  of  Lowell,  Mass.,  April  19,  1865    356 
XXL    RECONSTRUCTION,  ITS  TRUE  BASIS  :   Speech  delivered 

at  Weymouth,  Mass.,  July  4,  1865 372 

XXII.  EQUAL  SUFFRAGE  :  Speech  delivered  before  the  National 
Equal  Suffrage  Association,  Washington,  December, 
1865 408 

XXIII.  SUFFRAGE  IN  THE  DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA  :  Speech 

delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  Jan.  18, 
1866 427 

XXIV.  ADMISSION   OF  TENNESSEE  TO  THE  UNION  :    Report 

made  to  the  House  of  Representatives,  March  6,  1866    442 
XXV.    LOAN  BILL  AND  CURRENCY  :    Remarks  made  in  the 

House  of  Representatives,  March  16,  1866      ....    448 
XXVI.    THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  AMENDMENT  FOR  EQUALIZING 
REPRESENTATION  :    Speech  made  in  the  House  of 

Representatives,  May  9,  1866 456 

XXVII.    EQUALITY  OF  THE  NEGRO:  Speech  delivered  in  Faneuil 

Hall,  May  31,  1866 468 


CONTENTS.  vii 

CHAPTEB  PACUS 

XXVIII.    THE  ADMISSION  OF  TENNESSEE:   Speech  delivered  in 

the  House  of  Representatives,  July  20,  1866  ....    477 
XXIX.    THE   USURPATION  :    From    the  "  Atlantic   Monthly," 

October,  1866 489 

XXX.  POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS  :  Speech 
delivered  in  Boston,  Nov.  7,  1866,  before  the  Mercan 
tile  Library  Association 509 

XXXI.    RECONSTRUCTION  AND  ITS  RELATIONS  TO  THE  Busi-    . 
NESS  OF  THE  COUNTRY  :  Speech  delivered  in  Boston, 
Dec.  27, 1866,  before  the  Old  Bay  State  Association    .    638 
XXXII.    TEST-OATH  FOR  ATTORNEYS  IN  THE  COURTS  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES  :  Remarks  in  the  House  of  Represent 
atives,  Jan.  22,  1867 562 

XXXIII.  GOVERNMENT    OF   THE    INSURRECTIONARY    STATES  : 

Remarks    made    in    the    House    of  Representatives, 
Feb.  9,  1867 572 

XXXIV.  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES:  Remarks  upon 

the  Bill  to  provide  for  the  more  Effectual  Government 
of  the  Insurrectionary  States,  Feb.  13,  1867  ....  576 
XXXV.  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES  :  Remarks  upon 
the  Amendments  of  the  Senate  to  the  Bill  to  provide 
for  the  more  Efficient  Government  of  the  Insurrection 
ary  States,  Feb.  18,  1867 598 


APPENDIX     1 605 

APPENDIX    II 607 

APPENDIX  III 609 

APPENDIX  IV 611 


SPEECHES. 


JEFFERSON. 

SPEECH   DELIVERED    AT    BOSTON,    APRIL  13,  1859,   AT    A  FESTIVAL 
ON  THE  ANNIVERSARY  OF  JEFFERSON'S  BIRTHDAY. 

TT  is  a  distinguished  honor  to  be  permitted  to 
-*-  preside  on  a  festive  occasion,  when  the  vir 
tues  and  political  principles  of  Thomas  Jefferson 
are  remembered. 

For  this  honor,  I  am  indebted  to  the  undeserved 
partiality  of  the  committee  who  have  invited  and 
organized  this  gathering,  that  here,  within  the  limits 
of  the  Commonwealth  which  first  resisted  British 
aggression,  we  may  acknowledge  our  obligations 
to  the  men  and  the  principles  of  a  sister  republic 
in  the  great  struggle  for  liberty  in  America. 

Public  justice,  in  a  large  sense,  is  often  slow,  but 
always  sure ;  and,  on  the  hundred  and  sixteenth 
anniversary  day  of  the  birth  of  Jefferson,  we  en 
courage  our  faith  in  humanity  by  the  reflection,  that 
his  principles,  and  the  purity  of  his  private  and 
official  life,  have  been  relieved  from  the  rancor 
and  obloquy  of  personal  strifes ;  and  that  he  now 
stands  the  chosen  leader  of  a  majority  of  the  people 
of  the  nation,  who  either  accept  his  principles,  or 
claim  that  he  would,  if  living,  accept  theirs. 

1 


2\  f : / r  J. ;  { Y " ;  f    :  JEFFEHSON. 

The  world  permits  some  men  to  be  immortal,  and 
Jefferson  is  one  of  the  chosen  few.  Some  are  im 
mortal  on  account  of  their  goodness  or  wisdom; 
some  on .  account  of  their  love  of  freedom,  or  servi 
ces  in  its  support ;  and  some  because  the  record  of 
the  world's  life  would  be  incomplete  without  their 
names  and  doings.  In  addition  to  these  high  qual 
ities,  Jefferson  is  immortal  because  he  attached 
himself  ardently  and  faithfully  to  principles  in 
which  all  men  of  all  ages  must  be  interested. 

There  can  be  no  history  of  America,  without  a 
history  of  its  great  Revolution ;  there  can  be  no  his 
tory  of  that  Revolution  without  the  Declaration  of 
Independence ;  and  there  can  be  no  history  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  without  the  name,  the 
services,  and  the  character,  of  Jefferson. 

Moreover,  the  history  of  the  American  Revolu 
tion,  with  its  actual  and  possible  results,  is  no 
longer  local,  or  even  continental:  it  is  for  the 
world. 

We  are  also  building  up  a  language,  which,  if 
not  destined  to  be  a  universal  dialect,  shall  yet 
borrow  something  of  the  learning  and  something 
of  the  speech  of  every  people,  and  which  is  finally 
to  be  spoken  and  understood  in  all  civilized  na 
tions. 

The  principles  of  the  American  Revolution  have, 
then,  a  common  interest  for  all  mankind ;  and  the 
English  language,  as  a  medium  of-  universal  com 
munication,  shall  make  those  principles,  and  the 
contest  itself,  everywhere  known.  Hence  the  name 
of  Jefferson  is  to  be  more  widely  diffused,  and  the 
principles  which  he  declared  are  to  be  generally 


JEFFERSON.  3 

accepted,  because  they  awaken  sentiments  as  uni 
versal  as  the  love  of  life.  Jefferson  is  not,  then,  a 
star  merely  in  our  own  firmament,  but  a  central 
sun,  whose  light  and  heat,  in  the  revolutions  of  the 
world's  political  system,  are  for  every  zone  and 
every  people.  Other  men  participated  more  largely 
in  the  contests  of  the  Revolution ;  but  none  under 
stood  better  the  principles  on  which  it  was  waged, 
or  sought  more  zealously  to  secure  its  advantages 
through  the  theory  of  human  equality  as  the  basis 
of  the  equality  and  sovereignty  of  the  States. 

In  the  catalogue  of  great  names,  Washington  is 
first.  Exhibiting  a  patriotism  loyal  and  unselfish,  a 
wisdom  circumspect  and  practical,  he  was  always 
a  leader,  because  the  instincts  of  men  discovered  in 
him  a  greatness  far  superior  to  that  of  others ;  and 
they  consequently  yielded  a  willing  obedience  to  his 
authority.  After  Washington  are  many  whom  we 
can  neither  compare  nor  contrast.  Each  had  a 
record  that  cannot  die;  each  had  a  life  that  — 

"  Closed  without  a  cloud. 
They  set  as  sets  the  morning  star,  which  goes 
Not  down  behind  the  darkened  west,  nor  hides 
Obscured  among  the  tempests  of  the  sky, 
But  melts  away  into  the  light  of  heaven." 

In  Jefferson  was  combined  a  high  order  of  politi 
cal  philosophy,  with  profound,  sagacious,  far-seeing 
statesmanship.  The  cardinal  idea  of  the  nation 
ality  which  he  encouraged  and  cherished  is  the 
equality  of  all  men  by  nature  and  before  the  law, 
us  the  basis  on  which  the  States,  as  independent 
sovereignties,  are  associated  together  for  mutual 
protection,  but  without  the  right  anywhere  to  op- 


4:  JEFFERSON. 

press  the  smallest  Commonwealth  or  the  humblest 
citizen. 

The  minimum  of  power  under  this  sacred  right, 
is  the  power  of  each  State  to  decide  for  itself,  by  its 
own  great  tribunal  of  the  jury,  whether  any  man 
found  within  its  limits,  be  he  a  citizen  or  not,  shall 
be  transported  to  another  State,  there  to  suffer  the 
penalty  of  crime,  or  to  endure  the  oppression  of 
slavery. 

Mr.  Jefferson  believed  in  the  right  of  revolution 
as  a  sacred  right ;  and  now,  as  when  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  was  adopted,  all  experience 
has  shown  that  mankind  are  more  disposed  to  suffer 
while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right  themselves 
by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  are  accus 
tomed. 

Thus  far  in  our  history,  the  revolutionary  spirit 
has  not  been  evoked  often,  except  in  resistance  to 
despotic,  irresponsible  power;  and  thus  far  the 
results  have  proved  ultimately  favorable  to  liberty. 
While  this  great  right  of  the  people  can  never  be 
abridged,  it  is  the  glory  of  our  institutions  that 
they  provide  for  every  probable  emergency  under 
the  government. 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  an  example,  but  not  a  solitary 
nor  even  a  distinguished  one  among  the  patriots  of 
the  Revolution,  of  purity  in  official  life.  Possessing 
and  enjoying  a  considerable  fortune,  he  gave  himself 
for  forty  years  to  the  duties  and  labors  of  the  public 
service,  and  retired  without  the  smell  of  the  smoke 
of  corruption  on  his  garments. 

Jefferson  saw  and  reverenced  the  principle  of 
human  equality,  and  he  maintained  a  consistent 


JEFFERSON.  5 

hostility  to  every  form  of  human  bondage.  He  was, 
by  birth,  training,  and  association,  allied  to  the 
slaveholding  class :  yet,  in  youth,  he  strove  to  abol 
ish  slavery  in  his  native  State  ;  and,  in  old  age,  he 
breathed  a  prayer  and  a  lamentation  for  his  coun 
try,  whose  sky  was  overcast  by  the  lowering  clouds 
of  civil  and  servile  war,  made  possible  by  the  influ 
ence  of  a  system  which  he  had  denounced  in  the 
draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  as  it  came 
from  his  pen.  In  the  original  paper,  the  King  of 
Great  Britain  was  accused,  indicted,  and  condemned 
in  language  which  should  be  read  and  remembered 
by  all. 

"He  has  waged  cruel  war  against  human  nature  itself; 
violating  its  most  sacred  rights  of  life  and  liberty  in  the 
persons  of  a  distant  people,  who  never  offended  him ;  cap 
tivating  and  carrying  them  into  slavery  in  another  hemi 
sphere,  or  to  incur  a  miserable  death  in  their  transportation 
thither.  This  piratical  warfare,  the  opprobrium  of  infidel 
powers,  is  the  warfare  of  the  Christian  King  of  Great 
Britain.  Determined  to  keep  open  a  market  where  men 
should  be  bought  and  sold,  he  has  prostituted  his  negative 
for  suppressing  every  legislative  attempt  to  prohibit  or  to 
restrain  this  execrable  commerce.  And,  that  this  assem 
blage  of  horrors  might  want  no  fact  of  distinguished  die, 
he  is  now  exciting  those  very  people  to  rise  in  arms  among 
us,  and  to  purchase  that  liberty  of  which  he  has  deprived 
them,  by  murdering  the  people  on  whom  he  also  obtruded 
them ;  thus  paying  off  former  crimes  committed  against 
the  liberties  of  one  people,  with  crimes  which  he  urges 
them  to  commit  against  the  lives  of  another." 

These  words  ought,  as  a  ray  of  Divine  light,  to 
illumine  the  minds  of  the  people,  that  they  may  see 


6  JEFFERSON. 

the  enormity  of  the  crime  of  opening  the  African 
slave-trade,  of  extending  on  this  continent  the  area 
of  slavery,  or  of  increasing  the  number  of  markets 
where  men  are  bought  and  sold. 

Jefferson  accepted  the  Union,  and  labored  for  its 
perpetuity ;  but  he  considered  the  rights  of  the 
States  as  equally  important,  and  he  regarded  the 
rights  of  man  as  more  sacred  than  either, 
x— Jnstip.p.  is  fl.t  HUPP  fVift  fmiflr!at|fjj>  and  the  object 
of  the  Union,  — to  the  States  justice,  whose  ministra 
tions  are  the  only  security  for  their  equality  and 
sovereignty  in  the  Confederation ;  to  the  people 
justice,  which  mast  recognize  the  equality  of  men, 
that  is,  the  absence  of  any  natural  decree  by  which 
subordination  is  required  of  any,  or  authority  is 
conferred  ^upon  any. 

—  Slavery  is  the  enemy  of  justice ;  and  therefore  it 
is  the  enemy  of  the  Union,  and  the  only  enemy  the 
Union  has  cause  to  fear.  Freedom  is  an  element 
and  an  ally  of  justice ;  and  therefore  it  is  a  supporter 
of  the  Union.  While,  then,  the  Union  stands  upon 
the  sovereignty  of  the  States  as  one  element  of 
political  justice,  and  while,  consequently,  we  have 
neither  the  disposition  nor  the  power  to  interfere 
with  any  State  institution,  we  must  yet  so  assert 
the  supremacy  of  right  in  the  Territories  of  the 
nation,  and  upon  the  high  seas,  as  to  secure  the 
country  against  the  further  extension  of  a  system 
which  is  not  only  a  wrong  to  those  who  writhe 
under  its  power,  but  it  is  to  us  a  tyrant,  that  robs 
us,  by  every  accession  it  makes,  of  some  portion  of 
our  just  share  in  the  government,  and,  through  the 
treasury,  the  army,  and  the  navy,  takes  security  that 
its  own  authority  shall  not  be  disturbed. 


JEFFERSON.  7 

Mr.  Jefferson  had  faith  in  principles  and  in  men. 
Let  us  accept  the  teachings  and  the  experience  of 
his  eventful  life. 

Mr.  Jefferson  participated  in  two  revolutions. 
We  have  seen  a  third  ;  and  a  fourth ,  more  important 
than  either,  approaches.  When  James  Otis  pro 
nounced  his  famous  speech  against  the  writs  of 
assistance,  power  departed  for  ever  from  the  des 
potic  judges  and  royal  governors  of  Massachusetts. 
When  Patrick  Henry  anathematized  George  the 
Third,  through  the  examples  furnished  by  Caesar 
and  Charles  the  First,  Thomas  Jefferson,  then  a 
youth  of  twenty-two,  listening  at  the  door  of  the 
lobby  of  the  House  of  Burgesses,  heard  the  thun 
ders  of  that  coming  Revolution  which  was  to  shake 
and  finally  to  rend  in  pieces  the  British  empire. 
Thirty-five  years  afterwards,  Jefferson  himself  was 
called  to  inaugurate  a  new  policy  in  place  of  that 
of  the  Revolutionary  period  ;  and  he  thus  saved  us 
from  the  possibility  of  ever  being  tempted  to  imitate 
the  monarchical  institutions  of  Europe. 

In  less  than  thirty  years  more,  the  child  of  one 
war  and  the  hero  of  another  accepted  a  policy  by 
which  the  government  was  entirely  separated  from 
those  moneyed  institutions  that  in  other  countries 
have  proved  the  efficient  allies  of  despotism. 

These  contests  were  not  settled  upon  personal 
grounds,  nor  did  they  relate  chiefly  to  the  patriot 
ism  or  the  ability  of  the  men  engaged  on  either 
side  ;  but  the  country  having  in  some  measure  out-  . 
worn  and  outgrown  its  former  policy,  having  accept 
ed  new  ideas,  and  having,  under  the  pressure  of 
circumstances,  framed  new  issues,  it  necessarily 


8  JEFFEESON. 

demanded  new  and  legitimate  exponents  of  its 
judgment  and  will. 

The  great  issue  with  slavery  is  upon  us.  We 
cannot  escape  it.  The  policy  of  men  may  have 
precipitated  the  contest ;  but,  from  the  first,  it  was 
inevitable. 

The  result  is  not  doubtful.  The  labor,  the  busi 
ness,  the  wealth,  the  learning,  the  civilization,  of  the 
whole  country,  South  as  well  as  North,  will  ulti 
mately  be  found  on  the  side  of  freedom. 

The  power  of  the  North  is  not  in  injustice.  We 
are  bound  to  be  just ;  we  can  afford  to  be  generous. 
Concede  to  our  brethren  of  the  South  every  consti 
tutional  right  without  murmuring  and  without  com 
plaint.  Under  the  Constitution  and  in  the  Union, 
every  difficulty  will  disappear,  every  obstacle  will  be 
overcome.  But,  rendering  justice  to  others,  let  us 
secure  justice  for  ourselves ;  and  we  of  the  North, 
not  they  of  the  South,  shall  be  held  responsible,  if 
the  slave-trade  upon  the  high  seas  is  openly  pursued 
or  covertly  permitted,  if  new  territory  is  consigned 
to  slavery,  or  if  the  gigantic  powers  of  this  govern 
ment  are  longer  perverted  to  the  support  of  an 
institution  dangerous  to  the  welfare  of  the  people 
and  hostile  to  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union. 


MR.    DOUGLAS:    POPULAR    SOVEREIGNTY. 

PUBLISHED    IN    THE    SPRINGFIELD    REPUBLICAN,    1859. 

MR.  DOUGLAS  deserves  consideration.  He  is  a 
bold  man,  a  persevering  man,  a  successful  man. 
All  this  may  be  true,  and  yet  Mr.  Douglas  be  neither 
wise  nor  honest.  Mr.  Douglas  is  doing  what  has  been 
done  by  two  men  only  in  this  country,  Mr.  Jefferson 
and  General  Jackson,  —  making  a  platform  for  his 
party.  He  is  doing,  moreover,  what  has  not  been 
accomplished  by  any  man,  —  making  a  platform 
which  is  hostile  to  the  opinions  of  three-fourths  of  his 
party,  and  doing  this  defiantly,  perseveringly,  un 
scrupulously.  But  Mr.  Douglas  is  not  content  with 
this.  He  denounces  the  President,  who  is  the  recog 
nized  head  of  the  Democratic  party ;  he  caricatures 
and  ridicules  the  President's  domestic  policy  ;  and, 
finally,  he  announces,  in  anticipation,  what  the 
Democratic  platform,  to  be  built  in  1860,  shall  not 
contain.  Will  he  succeed  in  all  this  ?  Is  it  in  the 
power  of  Mr.  Douglas  to  inflict  a  fatal  blow  upon 
the  integrity  of  the  Democratic  party  of  this  coun 
try  ?  These  questions  wait  for  a  full  development 
of  the  temper  and  tone  of  the  Southern  wing  of  the 
party.  It  is  barely  possible,  —  an  assumption,  we 
confess,  that  shocks  every  moral  sentiment,  —  yet 
it  is  barely  possible  that  Mr.  Douglas  is  acting  in 


10  MR.    DOUGLAS:     POPULAR   SOVEREIGNTY. 

unison  with  leading  Southern  politicians,  who  say, 
"  Go  just  as  far  as  may  be  necessary  to  secure  the 
requisite  number  of  votes  in  the  North,  and  leave 
us  to  manage  the  rest."  Or  it  is  again  possible 
that  the  South  may  have  so  lost  courage  as  to  accept 
and  support  Mr.  Douglas,  as  only  not  as  dangerous 
as  the  candidate  of  the  Republican  party.  In  either 
case,  Mr.  Douglas  may  succeed ;  but,  in  either  case, 
the  lesson  to  Mr.  Douglas  and  his  coadjutors  is  the 
same.  Having  acquired  power  by  the  votes  of  his 
enemies,  through  the  influence  of  threats  which 
appealed  to  their  fears,  he  will  not  hesitate  to  main 
tain  himself,  and  to  secure  a  re-election  by  the  same 
means.  If,  in  1860,  the  South  shall  accept  opposi 
tion  to  the  slave-trade  and  a  zealous  support  of  the 
doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  in  the  Territories, 
because  votes  cannot  be  obtained  by  any  smaller 
concession,  will  their  leader,  with  his  ambition 
quickened,  but  not  satiated,  hesitate,  in  1864,  to 
take  any  position  which  the  temper  of  the  North 
may  demand  ?  If  Mr.  Douglas,  out  of  power,  can 
subsidize,  delude,  and  coerce  the  South,  how  greatly 
will  his  opportunities  be  increased  when  he  has  a 
hundred  millions  annually  at  his  disposal!  The 
South  may  yield  the  government  of  the  country  to 
the  Republican  party,  and  carry  on,  while  out  of 
power,  an  independent  and  honorable  opposition  ; 
but  the  election  of  Mr.  Douglas  by  such  means  will 
introduce  the  slave  States  to  a  future  answering  to 
the  past  of  Ireland,  —  that  Ireland  that  was  deluded, 
corrupted,  deceived,  and  betrayed  by  its  leading 
men. 

But  Mr.  Douglas's  principles  are  not  dangerous  to 


MB.  DOUGLAS:   POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY.        11 

the  South.  Socially,  pecuniarily,  and  politically,  he 
is  the  ally  of  slavery.  He  thinks  the  institution 
ought  to  be  extended  wherever  it  can  thrive,  and  that 
it  can  thrive  wherever  the  legislation  of  Nature  has 
not  been  unfriendly.  His  political  principles  are  with 
the  South ;  his  religious  tendencies  are  towards  the 
Catholic  Church ;  but  his  policy  is  for  the  advance 
ment  of  his  own  interests.  Hence  he  does  not 
succumb  to  all  the  dogmas  of  the  South.  Slavery, 
to  be  sure,  is  right ;  but,  inasmuch  as  it  has  not  been 
established  in  the  Territories  by  the  Constitution,  it 
can  have  no  existence  there  until  introduced  by 
positive  law.  The  South,  under  the  authority  of 
the  Dred- Scott  decision,  maintains  the  doctrine, 
that  slavery  exists  in  all  the  Territories  of  the  Union ; 
and  this  opinion  has  been  endorsed  by  Mr.  Bu 
chanan.  One  portion  further  maintains  the  opinion 
that  Congress  cannot  pass  laws  unfriendly  to  slavery 
in  the  Territories,  but  that  it  is  a  duty  to  legislate  in 
its  favor ;  while  another  party  looks  to  the  Supreme 
Court  for  all  necessary  protection.  Mr.  Douglas 
dissents  from  these  opinions,  and  asserts  "  that  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  neither  establishes 
nor  prohibits  slavery  in  the  States  or  Territories 
beyond  the  power  of  the  people  legally  to  control 
it;  but  leaves  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  to 
form  and  regulate  their  domestic  institutions  in 
their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States."  This  is  Mr.  Douglas's  plat 
form  ;  and  it  is  to  be  observed  that  he  concurs  with, 
the  extreme  men  of  the  South  in  maintaining  the 
doctrine  that  Congress  cannot  interfere  with  slavery 
in  the  Territories.  It  is  probable  that  he  here  con- 


12        MR.  DOUGLAS:   POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY. 

cedes  to  the  slaveholders  all  that  can  be  of  practical 
use  to  them,  for  it  is  quite  unlikely  that  Congress 
will  ever  establish  slavery;  but  he  denies  to  the 
North  what  is  of  signal  importance,  —  the  right  to 
prohibit  slavery  in  the  Territories  of  the  Union. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  in  the  history  of  the  meta 
physical  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty,  as  taught 
by  Mr.  Douglas,  that  its  chief  success  is  due  to  a 
single  sophistical  statement,  on  which  his  whole 
system  depends.  The  chief  article  of  his  creed, 
which  we  have  already  quoted,  declares  that  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  neither  establishes 
nor  prohibits  slavery  in  the  "  States  or  Territories/' 
&c.  If  we  omit  Territories,  his  creed  is  true  :  if  we 
include  Territories,  his  creed  is  false.  The  Constitu 
tion  treats  with  States  in  regard  to  slavery ;  but  it 
does  not  deal  with  Territories  at  all  in  this  respect. 
The  Constitution  is  not  only  entirely  silent  in  regard 
to  the  rights  of  people  in  the  Territories,  but  it  does 
not  even  assume  the  existence  of  people  in  the 
Territories.  What,  then,  can  be  more  absurd  than 
to  assert  any  tnm™s  tne  laW  of  the  land  in  regard 
to  slavery  in  the  Territories,  from  the  fact  that  the 
Constitution  neither  establishes  nor  prohibits  it  ? 
As  the  States  are,  by  the  terms  of  the  Constitution, 
subject  to  their  own  will  in  regard  to  slavery,  and 
as  the  Territories  are  not  mentioned,  it  follows  that 
they  are  excluded  from  the  operation  of  the  rule 
which  is  applied  to  the  States,  and  the  law  of  their 
political  existence  must  be  found  elsewhere.  Mr. 
Douglas  may  assume,  that,  by  analogy,  the  right  of 
the  people  of  a  State  in  regard  to  slavery  is  the 
measure  of  the  right  of  the  people  of  a  Territory. 


MR.  DOUGLAS:   POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY.         13 

Our  answer  is,  if  this  law  of  analogy  applies  to 
slavery,  it  applies  to  every  thing  else  ;  and  we  have, 
consequently,  no  longer  a  Territory,  but  that  com 
plete  organization  which  we  call  a  State.  Whenever 
any  distinction,  however  unimportant,  is  made  be 
tween  the  condition  of  a  State  and  a  Territory,  Mr. 
Douglas's  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  in  the 
Territories  is  fatally  undermined.  All  distinctions, 
therefore,  are  carefully  avoided  ;  and  he  constantly 
speaks  of  States  and  Territories  as  equivalent  organ 
izations.  Give  a  wider  application  to  Mr.  Douglas's 
slavery  logic,  and  the  absurdity  of  the  reasoning  is 
seen.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  neither 
establishes  nor  prohibits  any  institution  whatever  in  the 
Territories,  beyond  the  power  of  the  people  legally  to 
control  it,  but  leaves  the  people  thereof  perfectly  free  to 
form  and  regulate  their  institutions  in  their  own  way, 
subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ; 
and  therefore,  we  say  logically,  the  people  of  a  Ter 
ritory  have  all  the  rights  of  the  people  of  a 
State ;  and,  therefore,  there  are  no  Territories  be 
longing  to  the  American  Union ;  but  all  are,  by  the 
silent,  negative  operation  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  converted  into  independent,  sovereign 
members  of-  the  North- American  confederacy.  We 
commend  this  system  to  the  advocates  of  popular 
sovereignty.  It  offers  many  advantages.  It  will  not 
be  possible  for  the  people  or  the  Congress  of  the  old 
States  to  resist  the  admission  of  new  States,  inas 
much  as  their  consent  will  not  be  asked.  It  avoids 
all  unpleasant  issues.  It  provides  for  new  slave 
States  ;  it  disposes  of  Utah ;  it  settles,  in  anticipa 
tion,  all  questions  that  may  grow  out  of  the  annexa- 


14        MR.  DOUGLAS:   POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY. 

tion  of  the  Catholic  Mexican  States ;  and  it  permits 
the  immigrants  from  the  celestial  empire  to  re-estab 
lish  their  institutions,  and  take  their  places  as  mem 
bers  of  this  imperial  republic. 

Does  any  one  suggest  that  we  have  carried  the 
doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  so  far  that  it  is 
either  dangerous  or  ridiculous  ?  It  is  certainly 
ridiculous  enough  in  theory,  and  it  would  be  in 
finitely  dangerous  in  practice ;  but  Mr.  Douglas 
went  as  far  at  Columbus  the  other  day,  when  he 
asserted  that  there  was  no  difference  between  States 
and  Territories.  But,  we  may  humbly  ask,  if  there 
is  no  difference,  why  appoint  Committees  of  Congress 
on  Territories  ?  Why  consume  the  time  of  senators 
and  representatives  in  framing  governments  for 
people  who  have  full  and  complete  rights  of  their 
own  as  citizens  of  perfect  States  ?  Why  has  Mr. 
Douglas  himself  stood  patiently  and  laboriously  at 
the  head  of  the  Committee  on  Territories,  until  he 
was  dethroned  by  his  political  friends  ?  Is  there 
any  such  Committee  on  States  ?  Would  it  be  pro 
posed  by  anybody  ?  Would  it  be  tolerated  by  any 
body  ?  If  Territories  are  States,  why  haggle,  as 
did  Mr.  Douglas  in  the  case  of  Kansas,  about  their 
admission  into  the  Union?  Why,  indeed,  is  there 
any  question  at  all  ?  If,  as  Mr.  Douglas  asserts 
under  the  pressure  of  the  necessity  of  his  own 
theory,  Territories  are  "  subject  only  to  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,"  and  Territories  are 
equivalent  to  States,  why  are  they  not,  from  the 
first,  sovereign  members  of  the  confederacy,  and 
entitled  to  representation  and  consideration  as 
such  ?  If  popular  sovereignty  is  so  sacred  a  right 


MR.  DOUGLAS:   POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY.         15 

in  this  country,  is  it  too  much  to  suggest  that  some 
portion  ought  to  reside  in  the  citizens  of  the  States  ? 
that  they  may  very  properly  have  an  opinion,  under 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  concern 
ing  the  admission  of  new  States  into  the  Union? 
Yet  all  this  is  theoretically  denied  by  Mr.  Douglas's 
dogmas.  It  seemed  hard  enough  that  the  thirty 
million  of  people  in  the  old  States  should  have  no 
opinion  concerning  the  institutions  of  Territories 
that  had  been  acquired  by  their  valor,  wealth,  and 
enterprise ;  but  now,  under  the  new  political  dis 
pensation,  these  thirty  million  can  have  no  opinion 
concerning  the  admission  of  States  which  may 
have  established  Catholicism,  Mohammedanism, 
polygamy,  or  even  slavery. 

Further,  Mr.  Douglas's  doctrine  of  popular  sove 
reignty  is  not  freedom,  but  tyranny,  —  tyranny  for 
the  old  States,  in  that  they  are  compelled  to  accept 
new  States  as  equal  copartners  in  the  confederacy, 
without  the  right  to  a  separate,  independent  judg 
ment  of  their  own ;  tyranny  to  the  Territories,  or 
to  the  State-territories,  as  Mr.  Douglas  will  undoubt 
edly  call  them  by  and  by,  in  that  they  are  compelled 
to  accept  the  sovereignty  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  to  which  they  have  never  assented. 
It  is  the  essence  of  freedom  in  a  political  organiza 
tion,  that  the  people  shall  either  have  formed,  or 
assented  to,  the  constitution  or  fundamental  law. 
In  violation  of  this  great  principle,  Mr.  Douglas, 
from  the  beginning,  puts  the  Territories  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and,  by  the  oper 
ation  of  the  same  Constitution,  forces  these  State- 
territories  into  the  American  Union.  The  Constitu- 


16  MR.   DOUGLAS:     POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY. 

tion  of  the  United  States  is  but  an  institution,  and 
therefore,  according  to  Mr.  Douglas's  doctrine  of 
popular  sovereignty,  ought  to  have  received,  in  some 
way,  the  assent  of  all  who  live  under  it ;  yet  he 
asserts  over  a  new  Territory  the  supremacy  of  an 
institution  to  which  the  people  have  never  assented, 
and,  by  virtue  of  that  supremacy,  transforms  the 
Territory  into  a  State,  and  then  forces  the  State  into 
the  Union. 

The  preamble  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  is  a  sufficient  exposure  and  refutation  of  all 
Mr.  Douglas's  absurd  vagaries  and  theories :  — 

"  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  form 
a  more  perfect  Union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic 
tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defence,  promote  the 
general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  our 
selves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain  and  establish  this  Con 
stitution  for  the  United  States  of  America." 

It  is  quite  plain  that  the  Constitution  was  formed 
by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  that  its  ju 
risdiction  was  limited  to  the  United  States. 

Another  delusion  under  which  Mr.  Douglas  la 
bors,  is,  that  the  people  of  a  Territory  derive  their 
authority  to  establish  and  regulate  their  domestic 
institutions  from  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  ;  while,  in  fact,  the  right  exists  because  they 
are  men,  and  it  would  be  just  as  perfect  had  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  never  been  formed. 
In  truth,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as 
a  constitution,  can  never  apply  to  the  people  of  a 
Territory  until  they  have  formed  a  constitution  for 
their  own  government  as  a  State,  been  admitted  into 


MB.   DOUGLAS:    POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY.  17 

the  Union,  and  accepted  the  terms  of  admission. 
The  underlying  truth  of  republicanism  —  a  truth 
which  Mr.  Douglas  unceasingly  disregards  in  his  hot 
zeal  for  popular  sovereignty  —  is,  that  every  man, 
at  "some  period  in  his  life,  has  a  right  to  a  voice  in 
the  establishment  of  the  government  under  which  he 
is  to  live. 

With  our  opinion  of  Mr.  Douglas's  character  for 
boldness  and  perseverance  continually  enhancing, 
as  we  have  disentangled  his  inconsistent  proposi 
tions  from  each  other  and  from  the  delusive  argu 
ments  by  which  they  are  supported,  we  turn  to 
examine  his  quality  as  an  historical  authority  upon 
matters  of  government.  Mr.  Douglas  misappre 
hends  or  misrepresents  the  political  character  and 
condition  of  the  American  colonies ;  and  therefore 
all  inferences  drawn  from,  or  arguments  based  upon, 
his  statements  are  erroneous  and  fallacious.  The 
American  colonies  never  had  an  incipient  or  in 
choate  existence ;  but  they  were  perfect  political 
organizations  from  the  very  first.  By  the  operation 
of  the  feudal  law,  the  lands  discovered  in  America 
by  the  subjects  of  England  were  for  the  benefit  of 
the  sovereign ;  and  we  have  only  to  refer  to  the  early 
charters,  to  see  that  all  grants  made  were  made 
by  the  king.  The  lands  in  America  were  never 
the  property  of  the  people  of  England,  nor  subject 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  their  Parliament.  By  the 
charters,  granted  without  the  authority  of  Parlia 
ment,  the  people  of  the  respective  colonies  were 
recognized  as  perfect  political  bodies.  It  is  the 
theory  of  the  British  constitution  that  all  power 
originally  resided  in  the  king;  and  our  ancestors 


18  MR.   DOUGLAS:    POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY. 

maintained  that  by  the  charters,  under  the  feudal 
law,  and  in  conformity  with  the  long-established 
usage  of  Great  Britain,  the  people  of  the  colonies 
were  independent  of  the  Parliament  and  people w of 
England.  The  colonies  were  separate  governments, 
having  the  same  head,  to  be  sure ;  but  the  people 
of  England  had  no  rights  of  legislation  over  the 
people  of  America.  The  king  was  the  acknowl 
edged  head  of  the  colonial  governments,  and  the 
rights  enjoyed  by  the  people  of  England  were  the 
measure  of  colonial  rights.  Neither  the  Parliament 
nor  the  people  of  England  had  jurisdiction  in 
America.  Your  jurisdiction,  said  the  colonies  to 
Parliament,  is  confined  to  the  English  realm. 
America  is  not  within  the  realm.  As  the  king 
granted  to  you  the  right  of  legislation  for  the  realm 
of  England,  so  has  he  granted  to  us  the  right  of 
legislation  for  and  within  our  respective  colonies 
in  America.  As  the  king  has  granted  to  you  lands 
within  the  realm  by  the  feudal  tenure,  so  has  he 
granted  to  us  lands  without  the  realm  by  the  same 
tenure.  As  the  conditions  on  which  you  exercise 
authority  are  expressed  in  Magna  Charta,  the  great 
charter  of  British  liberties,  so  the  conditions  on 
which  we  exercise  jurisdiction  over  our  lands  are 
expressed  in  our  respective  charters,  which  are  the 
charters  of  American  liberties.  As  the  king  has 
agreed  that  he  would  not  levy  an  aid  nor  assess  a 
tax  upon  his  subjects  within  the  realm  without  your 
consent,  so  he  has  agreed  that  he  would  not  impose 
a  tax  upon  his  subjects  in  America  without  the 
consent  of  their  representatives  in  general  assembly 
met.  As  the  king  had  and  has  the  right  to  cede  a 


MR.  DOUGLAS:  POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY.     19 

conquered  territory  without  the  consent  of  the  Lords 
and  Commons,  so  he  had  the  right  to  convey  to  us 
this  region,  which  was  acquired  without  any  expense 
of  the  blood  and  treasure  of  his  British  subjects. 
In  fine,  that  America  is  a  part  of  the  dominions  of 
the  king  of  England  and  his  successors,  and  owes 
allegiance  to  him  and  them ;  but  is  no  more  subject 
to  the  people  and  Parliament  of  England  than  the 
people  and  Parliament  of  England  are  to  the  king's 
colonies  in  America. 

In  harmony  with  this  logical  and  constitutional 
exposition  of  American  rights  is  the  undisputed 
fact,  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  not 
made  against  the  Parliament  or  the  people  of  Eng 
land,  but  against  the  king  himself.  It  is  a  chief 
allegation,  that  the  king  had  "  combined  with 
others  to  subject  us  to  a  jurisdiction  foreign  to 
our  constitution,  and  unacknowledged  by  our  laws  ; 
giving  his  assent  to  their  acts  of  pretended  legisla 
tion."  Here  is  the  whole  argument  in  a  brief 
statement.  The  king  had  combined  with  Parliament 
in  an  effort  to  substitute  the  power  of  Parliament 
for  the  legislative  rights  of  the  colonies ;  and  for 
this  violation  of  the  constitution  he  was  deposed. 
Every  colony,  from  the  moment  when  its  charter 
was  granted,  was  as  really  sovereign,  in  regard  to 
its  own  affairs,  as  were  the  people  and  Parliament 
of  England  in  regard  to  the  realm  itself. 

Upon  this  view,  no  argument  can  be  drawn  from 
history  in  support  of  Mr.  Douglas's  theory  of  gov 
ernment  in  the  Territories  of  the  Union.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  reasoning  from  analogy,  based  upon 
the  truth  of  history,  would  be  this :  the  colonists 


20     MR.  DOUGLAS:  POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY. 

admitted  that  the  sovereignty,  including  jurisdiction 
and  property,  was  in  the  king ;  and  they  claimed  the 
free  enjoyment  of  those  rights  which  the  king  had 
granted  to  them:  hence  it  follows,  as  jurisdiction 
and  property  in  the  Territories  are  in  the  United 
States,  as  a  sovereign  sole,  that  the  people  of  the 
Territories  may  take  and  enjoy  such  rights,  and  such 
only,  as  may  be  conferred  upon  them  by  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States.  This  doctrine  would 
require  qualification  in  practice ;  but  it  is  the  only 
legitimate  deduction  from  our  colonial  life  and  his 
tory.  The  war  of  the  Revolution  was  against  the 
people  and  Parliament  of  Great  Britain;  but  the 
Revolution  itself  was  against  the  king,  who  was 
deposed  because  he  conspired  with  Parliament  to 
deprive  our  ancestors  of  those  rights  which  were 
conferred  and  guaranteed  by  the  respective  colonial 
charters.  The  theory  of  the  British  government  is 
unlike  our  own  in  these  particulars ;  and  Mr.  Doug 
las's  inferences  are,  consequently,  without  force. 

Mr.  Douglas  appears  to  be  equally  unsound  in  his 
legal  and  political  ideas  concerning  what  is  called 
jurisdiction.  An  acquisition  of  territory  implies, 
first,  unqualified  jurisdiction  over  the  territory  ac 
quired;  and,  secondly,  a  right  of  property  in  all 
lands  not  held  by  a  legal  title  derived  from  the  pre 
vious  government.  The  essence  of  cession  of  terri 
tory  is  the  transfer  of  jurisdiction  ;  and  jurisdiction 
is  the  right  of  exercising  authority,  which  includes 
the  power  of  governing  or  legislating.  If,  then, 
there  can  be  no  cession  of  territory  without  a  trans 
fer  of  jurisdiction,  and  if  jurisdiction  includes  the 
power  of  governing,  it  follows  necessarily,  that  the 


MR.  DOUGLAS:  POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY.        21 

right  to  legislate  for  the  Territories  of  the  United 
States  is  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  pri 
marily,  to  be  exercised  by  that  body  or  transferred 
to  another,  —  a  territorial  legislature,  for  example. 
Inasmuch  as  jurisdiction  is  an  unavoidable  element 
in  territorial  possession,  no  occasion  existed  for  a 
constitutional  recognition  of  the  right  of  Congress 
to  legislate  for  the  Territories  ;  and  nothing  can  be 
more  absurd  than  Mr.  Douglas's  inference  that  the 
absence  of  such  recognition  is  evidence  of  want  of 
power.  The  power  is  inherent  in  the  fact  of  pos 
session,  through  purchase,  conquest,  or  discovery; 
and,  without  such  possession,  there  can  be  no  occa 
sion  or  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  the  power. 
The  two  co-exist ;  and,  when  the  United  States  are 
in  possession  of  territory,  they  can  abandon  the 
right  of  jurisdiction,  or  be  deprived  of  it,  in  one  of 
the  following  ways  only :  — 

1st,  By  non  user,  in  which  case  the  occupants  of 
the  territory,  whether  few  or  many,  would  have  an 
undoubted  right  to  assume  the  duties  of  govern 
ment. 

2d,  By  a  transfer  of  power  to  a  local  legisla 
ture,  in  which  case  the  powers  of  the  local  legis 
lature  would  be  limited  by  the  terms  of  the  act 
transferring  the  power. 

3d,  By  conquest,  in  which  case  jurisdiction  would 
pass  to  the  conqueror. 

4th,  By  revolution,  in  which  case  the  rebels, 
made  patriots  by  success,  would  exercise  jurisdic 
tion  over  the  territory  seized. 

The  logical  absurdity  of  Mr.  Douglas's  position 
is  seen  in  the  fact,  that,  while  he  cannot  deny  to  the 


22        MB.  DOUGLAS:  POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY. 

United  States  jurisdiction  over  acquired  territory, 
and  while  he  does  not  show  the  way  by  which  ju 
risdiction  passes  from  the  general  government,  he 
yet  assumes  the  right  of  the  people  of  a  Territory 
to  legislate  for  themselves ;  and  the  practical  ab 
surdity  of  his  position  is  apparent  in  the  fact  that 
no  attempt  has  yet  been  made  to  introduce  popular 
sovereignty  into  any  Territory,  and  in  the  fact  that 
Mr.  Douglas  himself,  and  as  if  in  refutation  and 
derision  of  his  own  argument,  declares  that  "  the 
right  pertains  to  the  people  collectively,  as  a  law- 
abiding  and  peaceful  community,  and  not  to  the  iso 
lated  individuals  who  may  wander  upon  the  public 
domain  in  violation  of  law  ;  "  and,  finally,  that "  the 
principle,  under  our  political  system,  is  that  every 
distinct  political  community,  loyal  to  the  Consti 
tution  and  the  Union,  is  entitled  to  all  the  rights, 
privileges,  and  immunities  of  self-government  in 
respect  to  their  local  concerns  and  internal  polity, 
subject  only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,"  but  that  the  right  "  can  only  be  exercised 
when  there  are  inhabitants  sufficient  to  constitute  a 
government,  and  capable  of  performing  its  various 
functions  and  duties,  —  a  fact  to  be  ascertained  and 
determined  by  Congress."  The  logical  deductions 
from  these  contradictory  absurdities  are, — 

1st,  None  shall  enjoy  the  right  of  self-govern 
ment,  or  be  people  sovereigns  in  the  Territories, 
who  are  not  "  loyal  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
Union." 

2d,  "  Isolated  individuals  who  may  wander  upon 
the  public  domain  in  violation  of  law"  are  not 
popular  sovereigns ;  but  the  "  right  pertains  to  the 


MB.  DOUGLAS:  POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY.        23 

people  collectively,  as  a  law-abiding  and  peaceful 
community." 

3d,  None  shall  enjoy  the  right  of  sovereignty 
in  the  Territories  unless  their  numbers,  condition, 
power,  and  purposes  shall  have  been  first  "  ascer 
tained  and  determined  by  Congress." 

Therefore  popular  sovereignty  is  not  a  right  inhe 
rent  in  the  people  of  the  Territories,  but  a  privilege 
which  may  be  granted  or  withheld  by  Congress. 

Do  we,  then,  deceive  ourselves,  when  we  say  that 
Mr.  Douglas  offers  no  new  theory  of  territorial  gov 
ernment,  and  that  he  stands  just  where  the  Repub 
lican  party  stands  ?  We  now  judge  him  by  his 
conclusions,  and  not  by  his  arguments.  He  admits 
the  supremacy  of  Congress  over  the  Territories,  he 
admits  that  his  vaunted  doctrine  of  popular  sove 
reignty  is  not  inherent  in  the  people,  for  he  denies 
it  entirely  to  certain  classes  and  conditions ;  and, 
finally,  he  claims  that  Congress  is  the  judge  of  the 
time  when  the  concession  of  the  power  of  self-gov 
ernment  may  be  made  to  the  popular  sovereigns  in 
a  Territory. 

There  is  no  occasion  to  follow  Mr.  Douglas  fur 
ther  ;  but,  if  we  had  his  ear  for  a  moment,  we 
should  state  the  following  propositions  as  essential 
to  and  consistent  with  the  proper  government  of  the 
territories :  — 

1st,  The  right  to  acquire  territory  is  inherent  in 
every  government ;  and,  in  our  own  case,  it  is 
not  derived  from  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

2d,  As  the  essence  of  a  cession  of  territory  is 
the  transfer  of  jurisdiction,  the  United  States  neces- 


24  MR.   DOUGLAS:    POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY. 

sarily  acquire  jurisdiction  over  all  territory  obtained 
by  discovery,  conquest,  or  purchase. 

3d,  As  jurisdiction  is  the  right  of  governing  or 
legislating,  the  right  of  the  United  States  to  govern 
the  Territories  is  legitimate. 

4th,  The  right  of  self-government  is  inherent  in 
every  man,  and  may  be  exercised  lawfully  when 
ever  he  can  perform  the  duties  that  are  inseparably 
connected  with  the  right.  The  same  law  applies  to 
communities ;  and,  if  Congress  does  not  yield  this 
right  to  the  people  of  a  Territory  when  they  are  able 
to  perform  the  duties  of  a  perfect  government,  they 
may  assert  their  rights,  and  vindicate  them  at  all 
hazards. 

5th,  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  may 
be  extended  over  a,  territory  by  the  treaty  of  annex 
ation,  or  by  a  law  of  Congress,  in  which  case  it  has 
only  the  authority  of  law  ;  but  the  Constitution,  by 
the  force  of  its  own  provisions,  is  limited  to  the 
people  and  the  States  of  the  American  Union. 

6th,  When  the  people  of  a  Territory  are  equal 
to  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  a  State 
government,  they  have  an  undoubted  right  to  set 
up  such  a  governnent ;  and  it  would  be  an  invasion 
of  true  popular  sovereignty,  which  is  a  right  more 
sacred  than  the  right  of  territorial  jurisdiction,  if 
Congress  were  to  hinder  or  interrupt  the  action  of 
the  people. 

7th,  A  State,  so  formed,  may  apply  for  admis 
sion  into  the  Union  ;  and  Congress  is  entirely  free 
to  accept  or  reject  the  application. 

There  is  no  difficulty,  theoretically  or  practically, 
in  reconciling  the  jurisdiction  of  Congress  with  the 


MB.  DOUGLAS:  POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY.     25 

right  of  the  people  to  form  their  own  institutions, 
because  the  latter  right  is  a  practical  right  only 
when  the  ability  to  discharge  the  duties  of  a  perfect 
government  exists.  And  when  this  ability,  in  the 
progress  of  events  and  the  increase  of  numbers,  is 
secured,  the  jurisdiction  of  Congress,  the  lesser 
right  —  a  right  that,  in  the  nature  of  things,  is 
temporary  —  must  yield  to  the  greater  right,  the 
right  of  a  people  to  govern  themselves,  —  a  right 
that  is  not  only  permanent,  but  sacred  as  the  life  of 
man. 

The  Territories  are  the  children  of  the  Union,  and 
the  government  of  the  Union  should  be  conciliatory 
and  paternal.  There  can  then  be  no  higher  duty 
than  the  protection  of  the  infant  Territories  against 
those  institutions  that  are  at  war  with  progress, 
with  civilization,  with  Christianity. 


26 


SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE  FREE  LA 
BORER,  OF  PRODUCTION,  OF  BUSINESS, 
AND  OF  THE  UNION. 

SPEECH   DELIVERED    AT    CAMBRIDGE,    NOV.   1,    1860. 

I  PROPOSE  to  speak  to  you  to-night,  upon  those 
topics  that  are  before  us  in  this  campaign.  The 
time  for  deliberation  passes  rapidly  away,  and  the 
moment  for  final  action  approaches.  I  know  not 
but  that  it  would  have  been  wiser  for  you,  gentle 
men,  to  have  devoted  the  minutes  of  this  evening  to 
the  details  and  labors  of  the  canvass  ;  but  I  assume 
that  in  Massachusetts,  and  especially  in  this  dis 
trict,  where  the  Republican  forces  are  led  by  one  of 
the  most  valiant  and  trustworthy  men  of  the  coun 
try,  there  will  be  no  lack  of  honorable  effort  to 
secure  the  triumph  of  the  Republican  party. 

It  is  my  privilege  to  address  you  upon  political 
topics,  at  a  moment  when  the  supporters  of  free 
dom,  fortunately,  are  relieved  of  all  anxiety  con 
cerning  the  result  of  the  pending  canvass.  The 
mind  of  the  nation  halts  not  between  two  opinions 
or  among  many.  The  events  at  Charleston  in 
April,  and  at  Baltimore  in  June  last,  rendered  it 
certain  that  no  one  but  the  nominee  of  the  Repub- 


SLAVERY,   ETC.  27 

lican  party  could  be  elected  President  by  the  votes 
of  the  people ;  and  the  events  in  Indiana  and  Penn 
sylvania  on  the  9th  of  October  rendered  it  certain 
that  the  nominee  of  the  Republican  party  would 
be  elected  without  the  intervention  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  or  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  Unhappily  for  the  peace  of  the  country 
and  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  there  are  bodies  of 
men  in  this  and  the  neighboring  cities,  in  this  and 
the  neighboring  States,  who,  having  lost  hope  in  the 
success  of  the  parties  to  which  they  are  attached, 
now  seek,  by  combinations  and  menaces,  to  embar 
rass  and  thwart  the  administration  of  a  Republican 
President ;  and  thus,  indirectly,  they  give  aid  and 
comfort  to  those  enemies  of  the  government  who, 
in  other  sections,  conspire  for  its  overthrow. 

I  question  not  the  motives  of  these  men.  Purity 
of  purpose  is  an  apology ;  but  in  political  affairs, 
where  wisdom  and  ordinary  sagacity  are  wanting, 
it  can  never  be  a  defence  of  those  measures  which 
bring  ruin  or  grievous  ills  to  a  state.  The  party 
of  which  I  speak  would  first  make  its  power  felt  in 
this  Commonwealth  by  the  election  of  two  gentle 
men  in  the  4th  and  5th  Congressional  Districts, 
who,  though  marked  by  the  respectable  character 
istics  of  citizenship,  are,  politically  considered,  but 
the  relics  of  a  great  party,  which,  in  the  fulness  of 
its  strength,  and  when  led  by  master  minds,  ex 
hibited  a  marvellous  incapacity  for  the  business  of 
government.  The  masses  of  the  party  once  domi 
nant  here  and  powerful  everywhere,  true  to  their 
ancient  love  of  liberty,  find  in  the  Republican  or 
ganization  sufficient  security  for  the  perpetuity  of 


28         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

Freedom  and  the  Union.  This  new  party  is  already 
called  to  the  responsibility  of  administering  the 
government  of  the  country ;  and  for  you  the  ques 
tion  is,  Shall  Boston  and  the  surrounding  cities 
and  towns,  illustrated  and  ennobled  as  they  are 
with  the  evidences  of  learning,  industry,  and 
wealth,  be  represented  by  men  whose  experience 
and  political  associations  will  enable  them  to  act 
efficiently  for  the  protection  of  labor,  the  extension 
of  commerce,  and  the  development  of  all  the  ma 
terial  interests  of  the  metropolis  ? 
\f  Legislative  power,  in  a  great  country,  is  due  to 
the  personal  ability  and  integrity  of  the  representa 
tives  of  the  people,  and  to  those  political  associa 
tions  which  characterize  a  free  state.  Shall  the 
labor,  the  business,  the  prosperity,  of  Boston,  and 
of  the  cities  that  are  held  in  her  gentle  embrace, 
be  made  dependent  upon  a  Congressional  minority, 
led  by  Southern  men  of  extreme  and  hostile  opin 
ions  ;  or  will  you  confide  your  fortunes  to  the  noble 
and  generous  West,  whose  sons  cherish  the  life  and 
history  of  this  old  Commonwealth,  from  whence  so 
many  of  them  have  gone  forth  ?  If  there  are  men 
among  you  who  believe  in  slavery,  and  who,  conse 
quently,  desire  to  see  all  the  great  powers  of  this 
government  wielded  for  its  extension  and  protec 
tion,  to  them  I  make  no  appeal.  They  cannot  con 
sistently  vote  for  the  Republican  candidates,  however 
much  the  interests  of  trade  and  business  might  be 
advanced  thereby.  If  there  are,  on  the  other  hand, 
those  who  hesitate  to  sustain  the  Republican  party, 
though  no  barrier  of  principle  is  interposed,  I  call 
upon  them  to  consider  whether  Boston  can  afford, 


FREE  LABORER,   ETC.  29 

by  a  defiant  Congressional  and  Presidential  vote,  to 
separate  her  interests  from  those  of  the  great  pro 
ducing  and  consuming  States  of  the  country  ?  The 
census  of  1860  will  show  a  population  in  Ohio, 
Michigan,  and  the  States  westward  this  side  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  equal  to  the  white  population  of 
the  fifteen  slave  States. 

I  ask  no  man  to  vote  for  the  advancement  of  his 
pecuniary  interests,  as  he  would  thereby  deserve  my 
contempt  rather ;  but  I  unhesitatingly  declare  that  the 
time  has  come  when  slavery  is  the  apparent  as  well 
as  real  enemy  of  the  free  laborer,  of  production,  of 
business,  of  the  constitutional  administration  of  the 
iw,  and  of  the  Union  of  the  States. 

tiling  or  succeeding  —  failing,  I  think,  but  suc 
ceeding  or  failing  —  in  these  districts,  the  enemies 
of  the  Republican  party  hope  to  transfer  the  elec 
tion  of  President  from  the  people  to  the  House  of 
Representatives.  Disappointment  waits  upon  this 
hope ;  but  to-night  I  treat  our  political  enemies  ac 
cording  to  their  claims,  and  without  reference  to 
their  prospects.  The  supporters  of  Mr.  Bell  are 
the  leaders  in  this  movement.  The  friends  of  Mr. 
Douglas,  with  broken  ranks,  with  uncertain  step, 
and  marshalled  by  unskilled  men,  take  the  place 
in  the  dismal  procession  to  which  they  are  assigned 
by  their  ancient  enemies ;  while  the  officers  of  the 
old  Democratic  legions,  now  happily  destitute  of 
soldiery,  either  foot  or  mounted,  patiently  wait  for 
the  result  of  a  contest  in  which  they  have  no  risks, 
make  no  sacrifices,  but  whose  advantages,  if  any, 
are  sure  to  inure  to  them. 

Mr.  Breckinridge  maintains  the  doctrine  of  the 


30         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

equality  of  the  States ;  Mr.  Douglas  flaunts  the 
doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  ;  Mr.  Bell  claims 
special  credit  for  supporting  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union  ;  and  yet  the  partisans  of  these  leaders 
unite  in  a  policy  which  denies  the  sovereignty  of 
the  people,  which  offensively  asserts  the  equality 
of  States  while  it  denies  the  equality  of  men,  and 
puts  the  existence  of  the  Union  at  the  mercy  of 
desperate  and  hostile  factions. 

The  election  of  a  President  by  the  House  of 
Representatives  is  in  the  highest  degree  anti-re 
publican  ;  and  constitutional  authority  was  given 
therefor  only  to  protect  the  country  against  the 
evils  of  a  dissolution  of  the  government  in  conse 
quence  of  a  failure  by  the  people  to  elect  a  chief 
magistrate. 

There  have  been  two  elections  of  a  President  by 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  there  is  nothing 
in  our  experience  to  invite  a  third  trial.  Each 
State  is  entitled  to  one  vote ;  and  the  votes  of  a 
majority  of  the  States  in  the  Union  are  necessary 
for  a  choice.  The  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty 
is  disagreeably  illustrated,  when  little  Delaware,  with 
hardly  half  the  population  or  wealth  of  the  county 
of  Middlesex,  exerts  the  same  influence  as  New 
York,  when  Arkansas  and  Florida  are  set  off  against 
Pennsylvania  and  Ohio.  But  can  there  be  an  elec 
tion  ?  The  Republicans  control  fifteen  States,  with 
the  possibility  of  a  sixteenth,  and  no  hope  beyond. 
Mr.  Breckinridge  can  command  eleven  States ;  and 
the  remainder  either  have  divided  delegations,  or 
will  support  Mr.  Bell.  Mr.  Douglas  cannot  be  a 
candidate  before  the  House  of  Representatives. 


FREE  LABORER,  ETC.  31 

It  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  the  Republican 
party,  which  is  in  possession  of  more  political 
power  in  the  House  of  Representatives  and  in  the 
country  than  any  other  party,  will  yield  its  position 
or  compromise  its  future.  If  it  were  possible  to 
secure'  its  defeat  in  1860,  it  is  yet  sure  of  ultimate 
success.  We  cannot  doubt  that  the  Republican 
States  would  maintain  their  position  at  all  hazards 
and  against  all  odds.  Would  the  supporters  of  Mr. 
Breckinridge  unite  in  the  election  of  Mr.  Bell  ? 
Certainly  not ;  for,  when  the  people  have  once  failed 
to  elect  a  President,  the  government  is  irreversibly 
given  over  to  the  Southern  wing  of  the  Democratic 
party  until  1865. 

There  could,  then,  be  no  election  of  President  by 
the  House  of  Representatives ;  but  who  can  foresee 
the  consequences  of  a  struggle  among  men  already 
inflamed  by  ambition,  disappointment,  and  personal 
and  sectional  hatreds?  The  disunionists  of  the 
South  would  seize  the  opportunity  to  advance  their 
schemes ;  and  for  that  opportunity  they  would  be 
indebted  to  the  so-called  Unionists  of  the  North. 
A  vote  against  the  Republican  party  strengthens 
the  hands  of  the  disunionists.  Failing  in  an  elec 
tion  by  the  people,  and  failing  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  the  eyes  of  the  nation  are  turned  to 
the  Senate.  There  the  candidates  for  the  Yice- 
Presidency  are  limited  to  two  ;  and  none  can  doubt 
that  Mr.  Hamlin  and  Mr.  Lane  are  the  persons  who 
will  receive  the  highest  numbers  of  electoral  votes. 
At  that  moment,  the  government  of  this  country 
will  be  in  the  custody  of  thirty-four  men,  twenty- 
nine  or  thirty  of  whom  are  from  the  slave  States  of 


32         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

this  Union.  They  will  elect  Mr.  Lane,  of  Oregon, 
and  thus  secure  the  complete  triumph  of  the  pro- 
slavery  Democracy. 

Happily,  the  men  who  advise  you  to  aid  in  the 
defeat  of  Mr.  Lincoln  are  powerless  for  the  accom 
plishment  of  that  object.  Were  it  not  so,  they 
would  bring  upon  the  people  such  calamities  as  we 
have  not  yet  been  called  upon  to  endure.  Disunion 
in  the  South  is  the  fruit  of  timidity  in  the  North. 
Mr.  Lincoln  is  a  conservative  man ;  the  Republican 
party  is  pledged  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union 
by  its  most  solemn  declarations ;  and,  whenever  the 
North  shall  declare  itself  for  freedom  and  the  Con 
stitution  by  decisive  and  unwavering  majorities,  the 
cry  of  disunion  will  be  silenced  for  ever. 

The  Republican  party  will  protect  the  rights  of 
States,  —  the  rights  of  Virginia  as  carefully  as  the 
rights  of  Massachusetts ;  but  it  is  only  by  allowing 
it  to  administer  the  government  that  the  South 
can  be  satisfied  of  its  ability  and  disposition  to  pro 
tect  the  rights  of  all. 

Believing  in  the  success  of  the  Republican  party, 
we  yet  plead  for  large  majorities,  knowing  that  the 
power  of  the  secessionists  will  diminish  as  the  nu 
merical,  moral,  and  political  strength  of  the  free 
States  is  combined  in  favor  of  Mr.  Lincoln. 

We  are  aware  of  the  nature  of  the  contest  that  is 
before  us.  The  slaveholders  will  not  loose  their 
grasp  upon  the  treasury,  the  army,  the  navy,  all  the 
chief  offices  of  government  at  home  and  abroad, 
without  active,  possibly  not  without  violent,  resis 
tance.  The  lovers  of  power  and  the  enemies  of  the 
Union  will  combine. 


FREE   LABORER,   ETC.  33 

We  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact,  that,  in  the 
South,  there  are  many  men  hostile  to  this  Union, 
not  so  much  for  what  it  has  done  as  for  what  they 
fear  it  will  do.  They  have  seen  with  alarm  the 
growth  of  the  free  North,  and  they  have  anticipated 
the  most  violent  attacks  upon  their  rights.  The 
sooner  they  are  undeceived,  the  better  for  all,  South 
and  North. 

The  success  of  the  Republican  party  will  bring 
peace ;  but  the  success  of  the  factions  will  continue 
the  strife. 

Some  twenty  or  more  years  ago,  Mr.  Calhoun 
was  driven  out  from  the  administration  of  General 
Jackson.  In  connection  with  that  expulsion  com 
menced  the  war  against  the  Union.  Mr.  Calhoun, 
soon  after,  published  an  Essay  on  Government,  in 
which  he  denounced  this  Union,  and  declared  that 
it  was  a  failure.  General  Jackson,  for  the  moment, 
was  able  to  crush  out  the  disunionists.  He  wrote  a 
letter  in  1833,  just  after  the  secession  movement 
was  over,  to  a  gentleman  of  Georgia,  in  which 
he  said :  "  The  disunionists  are  destroyed.  They 
ought  to  have  been  hung  on  a  gallows  as  high  as 
Haman.  We  know,"  says  he,  "  that  the  tariff 
question,"  which  was  then  the  question  before  the 
country,  "  was  a  mere  pretext :  the  next  pretext 
will  be  the  slavery  or  the  negro  question." 

These  doctrines  of  Mr.  Calhoun  have  been  dis 
seminated  over  the  South;  they  have  infected,  to 
a  great  degree,  the  public  mind:  and  to-day  we 
find  leading  men  in  that  section  of  the  country, 
both  of  the  Breckinridge  and  the  Douglas  parties, 
pledged,  in  case  of  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  to 


34         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OP  THE 

disunion, — Mr.  Yancey  ;  Colonel  Orr,  of  South  Car 
olina  ;  Mr.  Foote,  of  Mississippi ;  and  others.  Mr. 
Foote  claims  to  be  a  friend  of  Mr.  Douglas  ;  but,  in 
a  speech  made  by  him  at  Saratoga,  he  declared,  that, 
if  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected,  he  was  pledged  to  go 
home  and  join  hands  with  the  extreme  South  in  op 
position  to  the  Union.  Mr.  Wise,  of  Virginia,  is  an 
avowed  disunionist.  How  many  of  these  men  in 
the  South  are  sincere,  and  how  many  are  merely 
"  men  in  buckram,"  I  cannot  say.  I  rather  think, 
from  a  short  article  I  saw  in  a  letter  from  Norfolk, 
that  Mr.  Wise  may  be  classed  among  the  latter.  At 
any  rate,  I  do  not  think  a  great  deal  is  to  be  feared 
from  such  men.  In  a  speech  made  in  Virginia 
lately,  he  said :  "  He  wanted  men  to  organize  and 
be  on  the  alert ;  he  wanted  minute-men, — men  who 
would  stand  by  the  South;  men  who  would  fight 
for  the  South,  who  would  die  for  the  South :  men 
who  would  be  ready  at  a  minute,  in  a  moment,  to 
protect  the  South  :  men  who  would  meet  the  Wide- 
Awakes  of  the  North,  when  the  time  should  come, 
first  with  cannons  loaded  with  grapeshot,  and  rifles 
and  muskets  and  guns,  if  we  can  get  them ;  —  if 
not,  then  with  swords  and  short-swords  and  bowie- 
knives ;  and,  if  we  cannot  get  them,  we  will -fight 
them  with  pickaxes  and  scythes  and  shovels  and 
pikes,  and,  if  we  cannot  get  them,  then  I  shall  lead 
the  van,  and  go  in  for  fighting  them  with  the  weap 
ons  that  God  Almighty  gave  us."  You  see  how  his 
valor  oozes  out.  It  reminds  us  of  De  Quincey's 
essay  in  which  "  murder  is  considered  as  one  of  the 
fine  arts."  A  member  of  a  club  in  which  murder 
was  practised  and  discussed  as  one  of  the  fine  arts 


ETC.  35 

thus  advises  a  young  man  who  offers  himself  as  a 
servant :  "  For,  if  once  a  man  indulges  himself  in 
murder,  very  soon  he  comes  to  think  little  of  rob 
bing  ;  and  from  robbing  he  comes  next  to  drinking 
and  sabbath  breaking,  and  from  that  to  incivility  and 
procrastination.  Once  begin  upon  this  downward 
path,  you  never  know  where  you  are  to  stop.  Many 
a  man  nas  dated  his  ruin  from  some  murder  or 
other  that  perhaps  he  thought  little  of  at  the  time." 
We  need  in  the  North  large  majorities,  in  order 
that  we  may  control  at  once  this  spirit  of  dis 
union,  whether  it  is  real  or  assumed ;  and  I  take  it 
for  granted  that  the  men  of  the  North  will  not  allow 
this  Union  to  be  broken  up  in  order  that  slavery 
may  govern  the  country.  If  the  question  is  ever 
presented,  which  I  trust  will  never  be  presented,  — 
Shall  this  Union  be  dissolved,  and  slavery  be  al 
lowed  to  stand  ?  —  I  believe  that  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  of  the  North  will  say,  that  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery,  having  been  the  destroying  power 
in  this  government,  shall  not  be  allowed  to  exist 
longer  than  the  government.  We  hold,  in  the 
North,  the  right  of  the  States,  —  the  right  of  Vir 
ginia  to  hold  slaves,  if  she  will ;  not  because  it  is 
right  to  hold  slaves,  but  because  it  is  the  right  of 
Virginia  to  decide  for  herself  whether  she  will  hold 
slaves  or  not.  But  when  they  ask  us  to  extend  the 
institution  of  slavery  to  new  Territories,  whether 
under  the  guise  of  protection  by  Congress,  or  by 
the  Supreme  Court,  or  by  the  doctrine  of  "  popular 
sovereignty  "  as  in  New  Mexico,  it  is  our  right  and 
our  duty  to  resist  such  extension  by  every  power 
conferred  upon  us  by  the  Constitution :  and  we  have 


36         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OP  THE 

a  right  to  call  in  aid  the  authority  of  Congress  ;  we 
have  a  right  to  call  in  aid  the  power  of  the  people 
in  the  Territories  themselves. 

You  recollect,  very  likely,  that  Mr.  Yancey,  of 
Alabama,  came  to  Massachusetts  during  the  last 
month,  and  in  Faneuil  Hall  attempted  to  put  upon 
Massachusetts  the  responsibility  of  the  existence  of 
the  slave-trade  from  1789  to  1808.  In  order  that  I 
may  not  misrepresent  Mr.  Yancey,  —  because  I  pro 
pose  to  review  some  of  the  positions  which  he  took, 
—  I  choose  to  read  to  you  what  he  said  in  regard 
to  that  provision  of  the  Constitution  by  which  the 
slave-trade  was  permitted  from  the  year  1789  to 
the  year  1808.  He  says  :  — 

"  Now  we  say,  that,  when  that  compact  was  formed,  in 
all  the  States,  save  one,  slaves  were  held  as  property ; 
slaves  were  held  by  our  fathers,  who  fought  the  battles  of 
the  Revolution ;  slaves  were  held  by  the  very  men  who 
formed  the  compact  that  exists  to-day  between  Massachu 
setts  and  Alabama.  Now,  then,  these  fathers  who  formed 
that  compact  put  into  that  instrument  certain  provisions 
with  reference  to  that  property.  What  were  those  pro 
visions  ?  Why,  one  of  those  provisions  —  the  most  strik 
ing  of  all  those  provisions,  as  applicable  to  the  great  issue 
now,  that  no  more  slave  States  ought  to  be  formed,  that 
slavery  ought  not  to  be  extended  into  the  Territories  — 
one  of  those  compacts  with  reference  to  that  issue  is  this, 
that  the  slave-trade  which  was  carried  on  by  our  fathers, 
and  especially,  men  of  Massachusetts,  by  your  fathers,  that 
that  trade  should  not  be  prohibited  before  the  year  1808. 
Our  fathers  did  not  leave  it  to  the  legislative  policy  of  the 
country  to  determine  whether  it  ought  to  be  prohibited  or 
not.  And  not  only  that,  but  our  fathers  put  into  the 
Constitution  this  other  guarantee,  with  reference  to  the 


FREE  LABORER,   ETC.  37 

slave-trade ;  viz.,  that  the  Constitution  should  not  be 
altered,  so  far  as  that  article  was  concerned.  You  might 
amend  the  Constitution  with  reference  to  the  representa 
tion  ;  you  might  amend  it  with  reference  to  the  commerce 
between  the  States,  and  with  reference  to  the  treaty-making 
power,  and  all  other  matters  :  but  it  was  guaranteed  in  the 
Cpnstitution  itself  that  the  article  which  secured  a  contin 
uance  of  the  slave-trade  until  the  year  1808  should  not 
be  amended.  Why  did  our  ancestry  do  this  ?  At  whose 
instance  did  they  do  this  ?  At  the  instance  of  Massachu 
setts  :  Massachusetts  was  in  favor  of  the  slave-trade  sec 
tion." 

It  is  to  that  declaration  of  Mr.  Yancey  that  I  wish 
to  call  your  attention,  for  the  purpose  of  showing 
that  there  is  no  foundation  in  truth  for  his  state 
ment  that  Massachusetts  was  the  author  of  the  pro 
vision  in  the  Constitution  by  which  the  slave-trade 
was  legalized  for  twenty  years. 

In  the  Convention  of  1787,  there  was  a  "  Com 
mittee  of  Detail,"  as  it  was  called.  That  Commit 
tee  made  a  report  of  a  draft  for  the  Constitution ; 
and  in  that  draft  it  was  provided  (in  Article  VII.) 
that "  no  tax  or  duty  shall  be  laid  by  the  Legislature 
on  articles  imported  from  any  State,  nor  on  the  mi 
gration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as  the  sev 
eral  States  shall  think  proper  to  admit,  nor  shall 
such  migration  or  importation  be  prohibited."  This 
provision,  as  it  was  originally  presented  to  the  Con 
vention,  left  the  slave-trade  open  for  an  unlimited 
period  of  time.  The  delegates  from  the  North  re 
fused  to  agree  to  any  Constitution  which  contained 
that  provision.  Eleven  of  the  old  States  had  pro 
hibited  the  African  slave-trade  ;  it  was  kept  open 


38         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

only  by  Georgia  and  South  Carolina.  But  it  is  to 
.  be  observed,  when  we  consider  what  it  was  expedi 
ent  for  the  men  of  that  day  to  do,  that  the  Articles 
of  Confederation  contained  no  provision  by  which  it 
was  in  the  power  of  the  Continental  Congress  to 
prohibit  the  slave-trade.  It  was  left  to  each  State 
to  act  upon  its  own  judgment  in  that  matter. 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia  had,  thus  far,  kept  the 
slave-trade  open ;  and  there  was  no  power  any 
where,  except  in  those  States,  by  which  it  could  be 
controlled.  Mr.  Charles  Pinckney,  of  South  Caro 
lina,  said,  "  South  Carolina  can  never  receive  the 
plan  [of  the  Constitution] ,  if  it  prohibits  the  slave- 
trade."  So  we  see,  and  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind, 
that,  in  the  very  beginning,  South  Carolina  deter 
mined  not  to  come  into  the  Union,  unless  she  could 
have  her  own  way  in  regard  to  the  matter  of  sla 
very.  And  it  is  also  to  be  borne  in  mind,  that,  at 
that  early  period,  certain  States  of  the  South  en 
tered  systematically  upon  a  crusade  against  the 
great  interest  of  the  North,  which  was  the  naviga 
tion  interest.  The  original  draft  of  the  Consti 
tution  contained  a  provision,  that  no  law  for  the 
encouragement  of  navigation  should  be  passed, 
except  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  each  house  of  Con 
gress  ;  thus  taking  the  subject  of  navigation  out  of 
the  ordinary  range  of  legislation,  which  was  none 
other  than  a  systematic  and  well-directed  attack 
upon  the  great  interest  of  the  North. 

General  Pinckney,  of  South  Carolina,  declared  it 
to  be  his  firm  opinion,  that,  if  he  "and  all  his 
colleagues  were  to  sign  the  Constitution,  and  use 
their  personal  influence,,  it  would  be  of  no  avail 


FREE  LABORER,   ETC.  39 

towards  obtaining  the  assent  of  their  constituents. 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia  cannot  do  without 
slaves  :  as  to  Virginia,  she  will  gain  by  stopping  the 
importation, "  —  alluding  to  the  well-known  fact,  that 
Virginia  was  then,  as  now,  engaged  in  the  slave- 
trade  ;  that  is,  in  raising  slaves  and  sending  them 
further  South  for  sale.  The  argument  of  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia  was,  that,  if  the  slave-trade 
was  abolished  immediately,  the  supply  of  slaves 
would  become  a  monopoly  in  the  hands  of  the 
Northern  slave  States. 

General  Pinckney  again,  after  discussion,  "  held 
himself  bound,"  as  he  said, /'to  declare  candidly, 
that  he  did  not  think  South  Carolina  would  stop 
her  importation  of  slaves  in  any  short  time."  He 
moved  to  commit  the  clause,  that  slaves  might  be 
taxed  with  other  imports ;  yielding  a  little  to  the 
judgment  of  the  North,  yet  not  willing  to  relin 
quish  the  right  of  the  South  to  engage  in  the  slave- 
trade. 

Mr.  Kutledge,  of  South  Carolina,  seconded  Gen 
eral  Pinckney's  motion,  and  said :  "  If  the  Con 
vention  thinks  that  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
and  Georgia  will  ever  agree  to  the  plan,  unless 
their  right  to  import  slaves  be  untouched,  the  ex 
pectation  is  vain.  The  people  of  those  States  will 
never  be  such  fools  as  to  give  up  so  important  an 
interest." 

Upon  the  motion  of  South  Carolina,  the  provis 
ion  relating  to  the  slave-trade  was  recommitted ; 
and,  on  the  24th  of  August,  Governor  Livingston, 
of  New  York,  made  a  report  "  that  the  importation 
of  slaves  should  not  be  prohibited  prior  to  the  year 


40         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OP  THE 

1800,"  thus  giving  them  twelve  years,  "  and  that 
a  duty  might  be  laid  upon  them  to  an  amount  not 
exceeding  the  tax  on  other  imports."  That  was 
the  proposition  of  the  Committee,  when  their  sec 
ond  report  was  made. 

August  25,  the  day  following,  G-eneral  Pinckney 
moved  to  strike  out  1800,  and  insert  1808.  It  was 
a  compromise,  undoubtedly,  by  which  South  Caro 
lina  and  Georgia  were  allowed  to  continue  the  slave- 
trade  for  twenty  years.  But  it  was  a  calumny 
upon  Massachusetts,  which  ought  not  to  have  been 
made  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and  which  ought  not  to  have 
been  cheered  by  any  one  of  Massachusetts,  to 
assert  that  the  old  Commonwealth  was  responsible 
for  the  slave-trade.  To  be  sure,  Mr.  Gorham,  of 
Massachusetts,  seconded  the  motion  of  General 
Pinckney,  of  South  Carolina ;  but  it  was  under  the 
pressure  of  the  declaration  of  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  that  they  would  not  come  into  the  Union 
unless  they  had  a  period  of  twenty  years  in  which 
to  supply  themselves  with  slaves:  and,  as  we  had 
neither  the  power  to  compel  them  to  come  into  the 
Union  nor  the  power  to  compel  them  to  prohibit  the 
slave-trade,  it  was  simply  accepting,  for  the  North 
and  for  the  whole  country,  the  best  terms  which  the 
States  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  would  offer. 
Therefore  there  was  no  other  course,  except  to  re 
ject  the  Union  entirely,  or  else  establish  a  Union 
with  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  outside,  but  still 
with  the  right  to  introduce  just  as  many  slaves  as 
they  pleased.  And  the  declaration  that  I  make 
now,  that  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  were  respon 
sible  for  this  provision  in  the  Constitution,  is  fully 


FREE   LABORER,   ETC.  41 

sustained  by  the  declaration  made  by  Gouveneur 
Morris,  of  Pennsylvania,  in  the  Convention,  when 
this  amendment  was  adopted,  providing  that  the 
slave-trade  should  be  continued  until  1808.  "I 
am  for  making  the  clause  read,  at  once,"  said  he, 
"  that  importation  of  slaves  into  South  Carolina 
and  North  Carolina  and  Georgia  shall  not  be  pro 
hibited  ;  "  and  he  said,  further,  "  he  wished  it  to  be 
known  that  this  part  of  the  Constitution  was  a 
compliance  with  those  States."  And  that  declara 
tion  of  Gouveneur  Morris,  made  in  the  Convention, 
in  the  presence  of  men  from  all  sections  of  the 
country,  —  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  North  Car 
olina  included,  —  was  not  denied  by  any  man  there  ; 
and  therefore  the  evidence  is  conclusive  that  the 
provision  in  the  Constitution,  by  which  those  States 
that  chose  were  permitted  to  continue  the  slave- 
trade  for  twenty  years,  was  introduced  in  compli 
ance  with  the  express  demand  of  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia,  coupled  with  the  declaration  that 
those  States  would  not  come  into  the  Union  if  the 
slave-trade  were  prohibited  immediately.  Luther 
Martin,  of  Maryland,  in  his  letter  (Elliot's  Debates, 
vol.  i.  p.  418)  says,  "  We  were  told  by  the  two  first 
of  those  States  [Georgia  and  South  Carolina],  that 
their  States  would  never  agree  to  a  system  which 
put  it  in  the  power  of  the  general  government  to 
prevent  the  importation  of  slaves,  and  that  they, 
as  delegates  from  those  States,  must  withhold  their 
assent  from  such  a  system."  And  yet  Mr.  Yancey 
comes  to  Massachusetts,  with  this  historical  record 
known  to  him,  and  in  Faneuil  Hall  charges  upon 
the  ancestry  of  the  people  of  the  Commonwealth  the 


42         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

great  crime  that  they,  by  their  will,  continued  the 
slave-trade  for  twenty  years  ! 

And  coupled  with  that  is  the  declaration  that 
they  caused  to  be  put  into  the  Constitution  another 
provision,  —  that  the  provision  allowing  the  slave- 
trade  for  twenty  years  should  be  irrepealable.  I 
put  Mr.  Madison  against  Mr.  Yancey,  and  ask  you 
to  find  the  truth.  Mr.  Madison,  011  the  10th  of 
September,  moved  to  take  up  the  clause  relating  to 
amendments  of  the  Constitution.  Mr.  Rutledge, 
of  South  Carolina,  —  not  any  man  from  Massachu 
setts,  —  said,  "  he  never  could  agree  to  give  a  power 
by  which  the  articles  relating  to  slaves  might  be 
altered  by  the  States  not  interested  in  that  property 
and  prejudiced  against  it."  "  In  order  to  obviate 
this  objection,"  says  Madison,  "  these  words  were 
added  to  the  proposition :  '  Provided  that  no  amend 
ments  which  may  be  made  prior  to  the  year  1808 
shall  in  any  manner  affect  the  fourth  and  fifth  sec 
tions  of  the  seventh  article.' "  (In  the  Constitution, 
the  fourth  section  became  the  first  clause  of  the  ninth 
section  of  the  first  article.)  So,  again,  it  was  due 
to  the  suggestion  of  South  Carolina  —  to  the  de 
mand  of  South  Carolina,  indeed  —  that  the  clause 
allowing  the  slave-trade  to  be  continued  for  twenty 
years  was  made  irrepealable.  This  is  the  second 
important  falsehood  Mr.  Yancey  uttered  in  refer 
ence  to  the  men  of  Massachusetts. 

Next,  Mr.  Yancey  said,  that,  by  keeping  the  slave- 
trade  open  for  twenty  years,  Massachusetts  imported 
one  hundred  thousand  slaves,  by  which  she  made  a 
profit  of  ten  millions  of  dollars,  which,  by  the  thrift 
and  economy  of  the  State,  now  amounted  to  one 


FREE  LABORER,   ETC.  43 

hundred  million,  or  one-eighth  of  the  accumulated 
capital  of  two  hundred  years  of  labor  and  economy 
by  our  people.  I  thought  it  worth  while  to  inquire 
as  to  the  truth  of  this  statement;  and  I  found, 
upon  an  examination  of  the  census,  that  it  was 
as  false  as  the  other  statements  concerning  slavery. 
By  the  census  of  1790,  there  were  697,897  slaves 
in  the  country.  In  1810,  there  were  1,191,364 
slaves.  You  will  observe  that  this  period  covers 
the  entire  period  of  the  continuance  of  the  slave- 
trade  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  The 
increase  in  those  twenty  years  was  493,467.  We 
find,  by  examining  the  census  of  1810  and  1820,  — 
a  period  when  there  was  no  slave-trade  legitimately 
carried  on  in  the  country,  —  that  the  annual  in 
crease  was  a  trifle  over  two  and  six-tenths  of  one 
per  cent.  Applying  this  ratio  of  increase  to  the 
slave  population  of  1790,  we  find,  that,  in  1810,  it 
would  have  amounted  to  1,167,  364,  or  only  24,010 
less  than  the  actual  number  of  slaves  in  the  coun 
try.  It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that,  during  those 
twenty  years,  many  slaves  escaped,  and  others  were 
emancipated  ;  so  that  the  number  of  slaves  imported 
was  larger  than  the  number  shown  by  the  census. 
But  it  is  susceptible  of  exact  proof,  —  as  nearly  as 
any  thing  can  be,  —  that  the  number  imported  did 
not  exceed  sixty  thousand :  and  it  is  also  susceptible 
of  proof,  that  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  imported 
at  least  one-third  of  those  slaves ;  that  Baltimore, 
New  York,  and  Rhode  Island  were  also  engaged 
in  the  slave-trade ;  and  yet  Mr.  Yancey  comes  into 
Massachusetts  and  into  Faneuil  Hall,  and  not  only 
exaggerates  the  number  of  slaves  imported  fully  fifty 


44         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

per  cent,  but  charges  upon  Massachusetts  the  re 
sponsibility  of  the  slave-trade  for  twenty  years ! 

In  the  next  place,  he  says  that  we  made  ten 
million  of  dollars  on  the  hundred  thousand  slaves 
imported,  or  one  hundred  dollars  profit  on  each 
slave.  When  you  consider  that  the  slave-trade 
was  free,  that  it  was  legalized,  that  nothing  stood 
between  the  merchant  and  the  trade  except  his 
own  conscience,  is  it  to  be  believed  that  the  average 
profit  on  the  slaves  imported  from  Africa  was  a 
hundred  dollars,  when  the  price  did  not  probably 
exceed  two  hundred  dollars  in  the  extreme  States 
of  the  South  ? 

I  come  next  to  the  action  of  Virginia  in  refer 
ence  to  the  freedom  of  the  territory  north-west  of 
the  river  Ohio,  as  set  forth  by  Mr.  Yancey ;  and 
notwithstanding  these  calumnies  upon  Massachu 
setts,  as  uttered  by  Mr.  Yancey  in  Faneuil  Hall,  I 
think  it  was  a  compliment  to  Massachusetts  that  he 
came  here.  His  whole  speech  is  the  speech  of  a 
dispirited  man.  It  reminds  us  of  the  scenes  in 
ancient  Rome,  when  the  defeated  warriors  of  other 
countries  were  carried  through  the  streets  in  the 
triumphal  processions  of  the  victors.  It  is  a  com 
pliment  to  Massachusetts,  that  he  came  here,  to 
Faneuil  Hall,  to  plead  with  us  that  we  should  not 
attempt  to  control  the  country  by  the  influence  of 
our  opinions ;  recognizing  the  fact  that  Massachu 
setts  leads  the  public  sentiment  of  the  country 
against  the  extension  of  slavery  to-day,  as  she  led 
it  against  the  despotism  of  Great  Britain  nearly  a 
century  ago. 

He  asks  us,  substantially,  to  be  generous  to  the 


FREE  LABORER,  ETC.  45 

South  in  this  matter  of  slavery,  because,  as  he 
says,  Virginia  has  been  generous  to  us.  The  dec 
laration  is,  that  Virginia,  of  her  own  motion,  gave 
to  the  country  the  territory  out  of  which  have  been 
formed  the  great  States  north-west  of  the  river 
Ohio.  He  asserts,  without  any  qualification,  that, 
by  the  compact  between  Virginia  and  the  other 
States  of  the  Union,  the  Ordinance  of  '87,  in  its 
sixth  article,  by  which  slavery  or  involuntary  servi 
tude,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  was  for  ever 
prohibited  in  the  territory  north-west  of  the  Ohio 
River,  became  a  necessity.  He  claims  for  Virginia 
the  credit  of  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  that 
territory,  and  says  that  the  exclusion  was  provided 
for  in  the  original  compact.  I  thought  I  had  read 
the  history  of  the  country  in  that  particular ;  but  I 
took  pains,  after  Mr.  Yancey  made  his  speech,  to 
examine  the  act  of  the  Legislature  authorizing  the 
cession,  and  the  deed  of  the  territory  made  by  Mr. 
Jefferson  and  his  two  associates,  as  far  as  Virginia 
had  interest  in  it ;  and  there  is  not  to  be  found  one 
word  in  either  in  reference  to  the  exclusion  of  sla 
very.  The  territory,  as  far  as  Virginia  had  any 
rights,  was  conveyed  to  the  nation  without  any 
declaration  whatever  as  to  the  exclusion  of  sla 
very. 

The  credit  he  claims  for  the  cession  on  the  part 
of  Virginia  is  very  much  diminished  when  you 
know  what  the  facts  are.  In  the  first  place,  there 
was  no  jurisdiction  actually  existing  in  any  State 
which  was  acknowledged  by  the  other  States.  Sev 
eral  of  the  States  claimed  that  this  territory,  which 
was  then  unsettled,  lying  west  of  the  Alleghany 


46         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

Mountains,  nad  been  obtained  from  Great  Britain 
by  the  common  blood  and  treasure  of  the  whole 
people,  and  therefore  it  could  not  belong  to  any 
State.  You  remember,  that,  by  the  treaty  of  1783, 
our  territory  was  bounded  by  the  great  lakes, 
the  Mississippi,  the  river  St.  Mary's,  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  the  Atlantic.  There  were  thirteen 
colonies  lying  on  the  easterly  slope  of  the  Allegha- 
nies  ;  and,  of  course,  the  country  west  of  that  range 
was  unoccupied.  There  were  also,  in  addition  to 
this  claim  of  the  United  States  to  the  territory  west 
of  the  Alleghanies,  conflicting  claims  by  the  States, 
growing  out  of  the  colonial  charters,  which  were 
granted  at  a  time  when  the  extent  of  this  continent 
was  but  imperfectly  understood  by  the  British  Gov 
ernment  ;  and  the  result  of  that  ignorance  was, 
that  the  charters  granted  to  several  of  the  colonies 
were  conflicting. 

For  instance,  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  in 
cluded  all  the  territory  between  two  lines,  one 
drawn  from  the  head-waters  of  the  Merrimack,  and 
the  other  from  the  head-waters  of  Charles  River, 
to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  Colony  of  Connecticut 
had,  by  its  charter,  a  right  to  all  the  territory  lying 
between  two  lines  drawn  from  different  points  on 
Narraganset  Bay  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  charter 
of  the  New-York  Colony  corresponded  in  character ; 
and  the  charter  of  Virginia,  which  was  the  oldest 
of  all,  —  dated  in  1609,  —  covered  the  territory  lying 
between  two  lines,  one  drawn  from  a  point  two 
hundred  miles  south  of  Point  Comfort,  now  Old 
Point  Comfort,  and  another  line  drawn  from  a  point 
two  hundred  miles  north  of  Old  Point  Comfort  to 


FREE   LABORER,   ETC.  47 

the  Pacific  Ocean ;  and,  of  course,  it  included  a 
large  part  of  what  is  formed  into  the  present  Union. 

These  claims  were  conflicting.  Those  States 
that  had  no  rights  in  the  Western  territory  by 
their  charters,  maintained  that  all  charter  rights 
were  annihilated  by  the  Revolution,  and  that  the 
territory  belonged  to  the  republic  as  a  whole.  Mas 
sachusetts  made  claims  ;  Connecticut  made  claims  ; 
New  York  made  claims ;  Virginia  made  claims. 
On  the  16th  of  September,  1780,  the  Continental 
Congress  passed  a  resolution  calling  upon  the  sev 
eral  States  to  relinquish  their  claims  to  the  general 
government.  What  did  Virginia  do  ?  Did  she 
relinquish  her  claim?  No.  New  York  moved 
first.  On  the  4th  of  March,  1781,  she  ceded  her 
rights  in  the  Western  territory  to  the  United 
States.  The  cession  by  New  York  was  followed  by 
the  cession  of  the  rights  of  Connecticut ;  but  it 
was  not  until  the  first  day  of  March,  1784,  that 
Virginia  ceded  her  rights  in  the  territory  north 
west  of  the  river  Ohio  to  the  United  States. 

What  next  ?  In  the  month  of  April,  1784,  Mr. 
Jefferson,  from  the  committee  to  devise  a  govern 
ment  for  the  territory  north-west  of  the  river 
Ohio,  reported  a  plan ;  and  in  that  plan  was  a  reso 
lution  that  slavery  should  not  exist  in  the  territory 
north-west  of  the  river  Ohio  after  the  year  1800. 
What  then  happened?  Each  State  had  one  vote 
in  the  Continental  Congress  ;  but  the  vote  was  made 
up  of  several  parts.  The  vote  of  Virginia  was 
made  up  of  three  parts ;  Virginia  having  three  del 
egates  in  the  Continental  Congress.  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  voted  for  the  slavery  prohibition,  the  other  two 


48         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

delegates  against  it.  The  vote  of  Virginia  was 
against  the  slavery  restriction,  and  not  for  it ;  and 
therefore  Virginia,  not  only  by  the  deed  of  cession 
and  by  the  act  of  her  Legislature,  was  silent  in 
regard  to  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  great 
North-west,  but  in  1784,  when  she  had  the  oppor 
tunity,  under  the  lead  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  of  prohibit 
ing  slavery  in  that  territory,  she  voted  against  the 
prohibition. 

With  what  propriety,  with  what  justice,  then,  I 
ask,  could  Mr.  Yancey  come  to  Massachusetts,  and 
claim  that  it  is  to  Virginia  that  we  are  indebted 
for  the  freedom,  the  power,  and  the  strength  of  the 
great  States  north-west  of  the  river  Ohio.  It  was 
not  until,  by  general  consent  of  all  the  colonies,  a 
form  of  government  was  established  for  the  ter 
ritory,  that  Virginia,  in  harmony  with  the  other 
States  of  the  Union,  assented  to  that  famous  ordi 
nance  by  which  slavery  or  involuntary  servitude, 
otherwise  than  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  was  for 
ever  prohibited  in  the  territory  north-west  of  the 
river  Ohio. 

Mr.  Yancey  next,  or  in  the  course  of  his  speech, 
proceeded  to  speak  of  the  prosperity  of  the  South, 
and  said  that  the  exports  of  that  section  were  about 
two  hundred  million  of  dollars  annually,  and  the 
exports  of  the  North  only  about  one  hundred  mil 
lion  ;  and  from  these  facts  he  asked  us  to  infer 
that  the  South  was  much  more  prosperous  than  the 
North.  In  the  same  speech,  you  will  remember 
that  he  spoke  of  the  expenses  incurred  in  the  South 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  slaves.  He  estimated 
that  there  were  four  million  of  slaves ;  that  half 


FREE  LABORER,   ETC.  49 

of  them  received  two  pairs  of  shoes  a  year ;  and 
that  the  expense  of  furnishing  shoes  was  about  ten 
millions. 

Then  there  was  the  expense  for  clothing,  —  some 
thirty  millions  more,  or  forty  millions  in  all.  He 
also  stated  that  the  Southerners  were  in  the  habit 
of  travelling  in  the  North,  visiting  our  watering- 
places  and  our  mountains,  and  expending  large 
sums  of  money  —  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and  fifty 
million  of  dollars  —  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
white  population  of  the  South.  So  you  see,  upon 
his  own  statements,  when  you  consider  them  to 
gether,  that,  though  the  South  might  raise  cotton  of 
the  value  of  two  hundred  million  of  dollars,  still  the 
larger  part  is  expended  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
slave  population  and  free  population  of  the  South. 
Such  is  the  fact.  One  of  you,  who  might  be  able 
to  buy  a  hundred  bales  of  drillings  upon  a  credit 
of  twelve  or  eighteen  months,  and  export  those 
drillings  to  India,  and  obtain  the  returns  in  season 
to  meet  your  notes  at  maturity,  could  just  as  well 
claim  to  be  the  exporter  of  the  cotton  drillings,  as 
the  South  claim  to  be  the  exporter  of  two  hundred 
millions  of  cotton. 

The  commission  merchant,  or  the  corporation 
that  manufactured  the  goods,  was  really  the  ex 
porter  of  the  hundred  bales  of  drilling,  you  being 
but  the  agent  doing  the  work.  So  it  is  true  to-day 
that  the  slaveholders  of  the  South,  who  produce 
two  hundred  millions  of  cotton,  are  but  the  agents 
of  the  capitalists  at  the  North.  The  "  Charleston 
Mercury"  has  disclosed  the  truth  in  an  article 
recently  published,  in  which  it  commends  the 

4 


50         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

scheme  of  dissolution,  and  advises  the  South  to 
put  that  scheme  in  operation  immediately,  because, 
it  says,  the  South  is  now  indebted  in  large  sums 
to  the  people  of  the  North ;  the  next  year's  crop 
has  already  been  advanced '  upon ;  and,  when  we 
dissolve  the  Union,  we  shall  not  only  break  up  this 
government,  but  we  shall  have  a  court  of  insol 
vency,  without  assignees  or  dividend.  That,  gentle 
men,  is  the  truth  in  regard  to  this  whole  question 
of  Southern  prosperity.  It  is  Northern  capital 
which  furnishes  the  means  by  which  the  production 
of  cotton  is  carried  on  in  the  South. 

The  exports  of  a  country  are  not  a  measure  of 
its  prosperity ;  nor  are  the  producers  of  the  particu 
lar  articles  exported  usually  the  most  prosperous. 
The  opposite  is  more  frequently  true.  The  exports 
and  imports  must  be  considered  together.  We  feed 
and  clothe  the  South,  and,  through  our  commerce, 
furnish  the  country  with  the  products  of  other 
countries.  It  is  the  whole  country,  South  and  North 
together,  that  exports  cotton  and  gold  and  grain. 
The  prosperity  of  a  country  or  a  State  is  ascer 
tained  when  you  know  the  average  production  of 
the  industry  of  the  people,  the  degree  of  social  and 
domestic  comfort,  and  the  gross  accumulations  of 
labor  and  trade  ;  and,  in  all  these  respects,  the 
slave  States  are  the  least  prosperous  of  American 
States. 

You  will  see  at  once  that  there  can  be  no  real 
prosperity  in  the  slave  States,  and  for  this  reason : 
the  slaveholders  are  not  themselves  laborers ;  they 
produce  nothing.  In  the  next  place,  men  who  do 
not  labor,  who  live  upon  the  proceeds  of  the  labor 


FREE  LABORER,   ETC.  51 

of  other  men,  are  expensive  in  their  habits.  There 
fore  you  have,  in  the  South,  a  large  non-producing 
class,  and  a  class  that  consumes  largely.  They 
contribute  nothing  to  the  public  prosperity.  In  the 
next  place,  there  is  not  in  any  slave  State,  nor  can 
there  ever  be,  an  efficient  system  of  public  educa 
tion  ;  therefore  the  white  men  of  the  South,  with 
the  exception  of  the  slaveholders,  are,  as  a  general 
thing,  in  a  state  of  ignorance  ;  and,  not  being  intel 
ligent  and  educated,  their  labor  is  comparatively 
unproductive.  Unless  it  be  the  slaves  themselves, 
I  know  of  no  class  of  men  in  this  country  more  to 
be  pitied  than  the  white  laborers  of  the  South, — 
unable  to  compete  with  the  blacks,  ignorant  them 
selves,  and  despised  by  the  slaveholders. 

There  can  be  no  respect  for  labor  or  for  the  la 
borer  in  the  presence  of  slavery;  and  therefore  it 
is  that  we  appeal  to  the  laboring  population  of  the 
North  to  stand  by  those  doctrines,  by  which  the  Ter 
ritories  of  this  nation  are  to  be  secured  to  freedom, 
and  made  hereafter  the  homes  of  an  intelligent  and 
industrious  laboring  population,  where  labor  shall 
be  respected  and  honored.  It  is  one  of  the  pecu 
liarities  in  the  history  of  men,  that  the  sons  of 
Ireland,  for  example,  who  have  fled  from  despotism 
in  the  old  world,  should  come  here,  and,  by  their 
votes,  do  what  is  in  their  power  to  establish  a 
despotism  in  this  country.  Whatever  we  may  say 
of  Russia  or  of  Austria  or  of  Italy,  whether  under 
the  rule  of  the  Bourbons  or  the  Pope,  there  is  no 
despotism  so  oppressive  as  the  despotism  of  the 
slaveholders  in  the  extreme  slave  States  of  this 
Union.  In  those  States,  there  is  to-day  no  liberty 


52         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OP  THE 

of  speech,  no  liberty  of  the  press ;  and  I  think  that 
we  may  appeal  to  all  citizens,  whether  native-born 
or  adopted,  to  so  exercise  the  elective  franchise 
that  this  despotism,  so  oppressive  in  the  slave 
States,  shall  not  be  extended  to  territory  that  would 
otherwise  be  free. 

The  next  element  in  the  polity  of  the  South  is  to 
be  found  in  the  fact,  that  the  producing  class,  the 
slaves  themselves,  are  under  two  influences,  both 
antagonistic  to  individual  and  public  prosperity. 
The  slave,  —  what  is  his  interest  ?  It  is  to  produce 
as  little  as  possible,  and  to  consume  as  much  as 
possible.  And  how  does  he  differ  from  the  free 
laborer,  who  enjoys  the  fruit  of  his  own  industry  ? 
The  free  laborer  produces  as  much  as  possible, 
and  consumes  as  little  as  possible ;  therefore  there 
is,  as  the  result  of  his  energies,  a  surplus,  more  or 
less,  which  goes  to  the  credit  of  individual,  and 
ultimately  of  public,  wealth.  There  is,  in  the  free 
States  of  this  country,  no  considerable  number  of 
non-producers ;  hence  the  North  has  this  advan 
tage  over  the  South,  that  there  are  few  non-pro 
ducers  and  a  large  number  of  producers.  Every 
man  is  interested  in  adding  as  much  as  possible  to 
his  own  wealth,  and  therefore  interested  in  adding 
as  much  as  possible  to  the  wealth  of  the  commu 
nity.  Hence  it  is  that  the  free  States  to-day  are 
rich  and  powerful,  and  the  slave  States  are  poor 
and  weak. 

It  is  not  for  us  of  Massachusetts  to  disparage 
Virginia,  or  any  other  of  the  slave  States;  but, 
when  we  are  called  upon  to  consider  whether  we 
will  extend  slavery  into  new  territory,  it  is  a  matter 


FREE  LABORER,   ETC.  53 

that  concerns  us  to  inquire  what  has  been  the  effect 
of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists.  Especially 
are  We  justified  in  examining  into  the  pecuniary  and 
financial  condition  of  the  South,  when  a  man  comes 
here  from  Alabama,  and  in  Faneuil  Hall  boasts  of 
the  superior  wealth  of  the  South,  as  contrasted  with 
the  condition  of  the  North.  Under  the  influence  of 
these  two  ideas,  the  extension  or  non-extension 
of  slavery  to  new  territory,  and  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Yancey  had  boasted  of  the  wealth  of  the  South,  I 
thought  it  well  enough  to  look  at  Virginia,  and  as 
certain  what  her  condition  is.  There  were  no  sta 
tistics  in  regard  to  Alabama,  or  I  should  have  taken 
pains  to  make  inquiries  into  the  condition  of  his 
own  State ;  but,  concerning  Virginia,  there  are  sta 
tistics. 

Look  at  Virginia  as  a  whole.  Consider  the 
extent  of  her  territory, — many  times  the  size  of 
Massachusetts.  She  has  an  inviting  climate  ;  she 
has,  by  nature,  a  fertile  soil ;  she  has  valuable 
mines  of  iron  and  coal,  and  even  stores  of  the 
precious  metals ;  she  has  navigable  rivers,  that  pen 
etrate  to  the  interior  of  the  State ;  she  has  an 
extensive  sea-coast ;  and  she  has  water-power  suffi 
cient  to  turn  all  the  machinery  of  New  England. 
Under  such  circumstances,  if  there  were  the  proper 
degree  of  enterprise  and  public  spirit,  you  would 
find  great  wealth.  But  what  is  the  condition  of 
Virginia  to-day  ?  She  has  a  public  debt  of  thirty 
million  of  dollars,  which  is  increasing  at  the  rate 
of  a  million  dollars  a  year.  Her  six-per-cent 
stocks,  that  have  thirty  years  to  run,  sell  for  ninety 
cents ;  while  the  six-per-cent  stocks  of  the  State 


54         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

of  New  York  sell  for  |1.12,  and  the  five-per-cent 
stocks  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts  are  worth 
more  than  par. 

I  ask  you,  to  what  is  this  difference  to  be  attrib 
uted  ?  It  is  to  the  fact  that  financial  men  in  this 
country  and  in  Europe  have  not  confidence  in  the 
ability  of  Virginia  to  pay  her  debts.  And  there 
is  an  historical  fact  which  is  worth  considering  in 
this  connection.  No  despotism  has  ever  yet  paid 
its  debts,  because  the  expense  of  maintaining  a 
despotic  government  is  always  large,  and  its  re 
sources  relatively  are  small.  Very  likely,  Virginia 
may  pay  her  debt ;  but  it  will  only  be  when  she  has 
relieved  herself  of  the  weight  of  the  institution  of 
slavery.  If  she  shall  see  fit,  by  her  own  motion, 
to  provide  for  the  emancipation  of  her  slaves ;  if 
she  shall  encourage  free  labor,  and  develop  her 
internal  resources  thereby,  —  then  she  will  be  able 
to  pay  her  debt.  But,  if  Virginia  allows  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery  to  remain  for  fifty  years,  she  is 
bankrupt,  and  her  scrip  is  not  worth  thirty  cents 
on  a  dollar  for  any  man  who  invests  for  his  chil 
dren. 

How  has  Virginia  disposed  of  the  money  she  has 
borrowed  ?  She  has  put,  of  the  public  money, 
eighteen  million  of  dollars  into  railways ;  her  citi 
zens  have  invested  between  nine  and  ten  million 
more.  Bear  in  mind,  Virginia,  a  Southern  State, 
whose  wealth  is  the  subject  of  Mr.  Yancey's  boast 
in  Fancuil  Hall,  invests,  of  the  wealth  of  her  citi 
zens,  as  I  have  said,  nine  or  ten  million  in  her 
railways.  The  citizens  of  Massachusetts  have  in 
vested  more  than  fifty  million  of  dollars  in  rail- 


FEEE  LABORER,  ETC.  55 

ways  within  her  own  limits,  and  fifty  to  a  hundred 
millions  more  in  railways  lying  in  other  States. 
We  could  buy  all  the  railways  in  Virginia  without 
producing  any  perceptible  effect  upon  the  money 
market. 

What  next?  The  railways  of  Virginia  pay  an 
annual  dividend,  over  and  above  the  current  ex 
penses,  of  two  per  cent:  the  railways  of  Massa 
chusetts,  good  and  poor  together,  pay  a  dividend 
of  between  six  and  seven  per  cent.  Where,  then, 
is  the  wealth,  where  the  prosperity  ?  Is  it  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  or  in  Virginia  ? 

Next,  we  know  what  the  trade  of  Virginia  is. 
In  her  impoverished  condition,  she  taxes  all  the 
goods  sold  in  her  limits ;  and  we  find,  that,  in  one 
year,  the  goods  sold  amount  to  only  forty-one  mil 
lion  of  dollars  in  the  great  State  of  Virginia ! 
When  Mr.  Yancey  visited  Boston,  I  could  have 
shown  him,  in  ten  minutes,  a  dozen  merchants  who 
sell  more  goods,  each  year,  than  are  sold  in  the 
whole  State  of  Virginia ;  and  yet  he  comes  here  and 
boasts  of  the  prosperity  of  the  South ! 

I  say  not  these  things  for  the  purpose  of  dispar 
aging  Virginia,  but  to  ask  the  men  of  Middlesex 
and  of  Massachusetts  whether  upon  the  slopes  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  east  towards  the  Mississippi 
and  west  towards  the  Pacific  Ocean,  you  are  will 
ing  to  establish  yet  other  Virginias  with  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery.  If  you  are  not,  there  is  but  one 
way  to  prevent  it,  and  that  is  to  vote  the  Republican 
ticket,  because  all  the  other  parties,  either  covertly 
or  openly,  are  in  favor  of  the  institution  of  slavery. 
There  are  but  two  parties,  there  can  be  but  two 


56         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

parties,  in  a  country  like  this,  when  an  issue  of  the 
importance  of  the  extension  of  slavery  is  presented 
to  the  people. 

Mr.  Breckinridge  and  his  adherents  are  open, 
bold,  and  defiant  supporters  of  the  institution  of 
slavery ;  and  the  parties  that  stand  between  the 
Breckinridge  party  and  the  Republican  party  will 
be  crushed  and  annihilated  in  the  great  struggle 
that  is  going  on.  It  is  not  enough  for  the  exigen 
cies  of  the  occasion,  that  men  say,  as  Mr.  Douglas 
says,  that  they  "  don't  care  whether  slavery  is 
voted  up  or  voted  down." 

The  free  men  of  this  country  do  care  whether 
"  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted  down."  They  mean, 
wherever  they  have  the  power  to  bring  the  elective 
franchise  to  bear  upon  the  question  of  slavery  in 
the  Territories,  to  vote  it  down.  We  have  the  right 
in  the  Territories  to  vote  it  down  ;  and  we  will 
exercise  that  right.  We  have  the  right  to  prohibit 
the  foreign  slave-trade,  which  to-day  is  permitted, 
if  not  recognized ;  we  have  a  right  to  vote  the 
foreign  slave-trade  down,  by  putting  into  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  country  men  who  will  see  that  the 
laws  are  executed  against  the  slave-trade,  as  well  as 
for  the  recovery  of  a  fugitive  slave  who  happens  to 
escape  to  the  North. 

And  I  say  further,  gentlemen,  that  the  success  of 
the  Republican  party  is  as  important  to  the  South 
as  to  the  North ;  indeed,  I  think  it  is  more  impor 
tant  to  the  South  that  the  Republican  party  should 
succeed  than  it  is  to  us ;  and  it  will  be  written  of 
the  Republican  party,  and  of  the  men  who  have 
led  it  in  these  days,  as  by  Mr.  Bancroft  it  has  been 


FREE   LABORER,   ETC.  57 

written  of  James  Otis,  that  "  lie  builded  better  than 
he  knew." 

We  are  working  for  the  interest  of  the  whole 
country,  and  in  this  respect,  chiefly,  that  it  is  only 
by  and  through  the  Republican  party  that  the  way 
is  to  be  opened  for  the  escape  of  the  South  from 
the  calamities  that  are  already  foreshadowed.  Do 
you  hear  the  rumbling,  the  muttering,  sometimes 
in  Virginia,  sometimes  in  Texas,  sometimes  in 
Tennessee,  as  when,  in  1856,  after  the  defeat  of 
Colonel  Fremont,  the  slaves  of  Mr.  Bell  rose  in 
insurrection  ? 

It  is  only  by  the  success  of  the  Republican  party 
that  the  weight  of  despotism  that  rests  upon  the 
border  slave  States  can,  to  some  extent,  be  removed. 
When  the  government  of  this  country  shall  be  in 
the  hands  of  patriotic  men ;  when  officers  shall  be 
appointed  in  the  border  slave  States  who  are  not 
devoted  entirely  to  slavery,  as  they  may  be  in 
Virginia  and  Kentucky,  —  there  will  be  freedom  of 
speech  and  freedom  of  the  press  ;  and  the  people 
will  begin  to  consider  and  to  discuss  the  question, 
just  as  we  discuss  it  here  to  night,  whether  slavery 
is,  upon  the  whole,  advantageous  or  otherwise. 
When  they  are  permitted  to  discuss  this  question, 
they  will  reach  precisely  the  same  conclusions  that 
you  reach,  —  that  it  is  an  evil,  morally,  socially,  and 
financially. 

And,  when  the  people  of  any  State  —  for  instance, 
the  State  of  Delaware,  where  there  are  not  two 
thousand  slaves  to-day — shall  discuss  the  question, 
and  decide  that  it  is  not  wise  to  continue  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery,  there  is  nothing  in  the  question 


58         SLAVERY  THE  ENEMY  OF  THE 

beyond  the  capacities  of  the  most  ordinary  states 
manship.  Ways  and  means  will  be  devised  by 
those  States,  of  themselves,  without  the  interven 
tion  of  the  general  government,  or  the  States  of 
the  North,  for  the  peaceful  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  in  the  border  slave  States.  When  that  shall 
have  been  accomplished,  instead  of  their  coming 
North  to  compete  with  the  free  white  laborers  here, 
the  black  men  of  the  North  will  go  South.  You 
recollect  that  Mr.  Yancey  told  us  how  the  slaves 
enjoy  basking  in  the  sun,  with  the  temperature  at 
one  hundred  and  ten  degrees.  Do  you  think  they 
4  come  North  for  that  purpose  ?  No :  they  come 
here  because  they  cannot  be  allowed  to  remain  in 
that  climate  which  is  best  adapted  to  their  constitu 
tion. 

Therefore  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  does 
not  portend  evil  to  the  laboring  people  of  the 
North,  but  rather  benefit.  When  the  slave  popula 
tion  of  the  South  has  the  hope,  that,  some  time  or 
other,  ways  and  means  will  be  provided  for  eman 
cipation,  they  will  be  quiet,  whether  that  emancipa 
tion  be  five,  ten,  twenty,  or  thirty  years  hence.  But 
I  am  one  of  those  who  believe  that  there  is  not 
power  enough  in  this  government,  however  ardently 
it  might  be  desired  by  those  who  administer  it,  to 
keep  the  slaves  in  subjection,  however  religiously 
we  may  observe  the  provision  of  the  Constitution 
which  requires  the  suppression  of  insurrections, — 
I  say,  I  am  of  those  who  believe  that  there  is  not 
power  enough  in  this  government  —  aye,  I  believe 
more,  that  there  never  was  a  government  powerful 
enough  —  to  control  the  five  and  six  and  seven  and 


FREE  LABORER,   ETC.  59 

eight  and  ten  million  of  slaves  that  are  to  be  in 
this  country  in  the  next  fifty  years,  if  some  means 
be  not  devised  for  their  emancipation. 

They  are  already  under  the  control  of  the  same 
influences  that  control  their  masters ;  they  are  be 
coming,  in  a  degree,  more  and  more  intelligent 
every  year ;  they  comprehend  the  doctrine  of  human 
rights  ;  and  it  will  not  be  in  the  power  of  this 
government,  or  of  any  other,  to  keep  these  men  in 
submission  twenty,  thirty,  forty,  and  fifty  years. 
Therefore  whoever  furnishes  an  opportunity  for  the 
free  people  of  the  slave  States  to  consider  this  mat 
ter  for  themselves  is  a  benefactor  of  our  country ; 
for,  if  the  South  shall  be  deluged  with  blood  in  con 
sequence  of  a  servile  war,  the  calamity  will  be  one 
affecting  the  whole  nation.  Hence  it  is  hardly  less 
our  interest  than  it  is  theirs  to  pursue  the  discussion 
of  this  question,  but  yet  with  an  earnest  desire  to 
advance  the  fortunes  of  the  whole  country. 

Whenever  the  Republican  party  comes  into  power, 
the  moderate  and  conservative  and  upright  minds 
of  the  South  will  see  that  we  contemplate  no  injury 
to  them.  The  most  that  can  happen  is,  that,  by  a 
proper  and  constitutional  administration  of  this 
government,  there  shall  be  freedom  of  speech,  free 
dom  of  the  press,  freedom  of  the  mails,  in  the 
slave  States;  and,  as  the  result  of  this  freedom, 
the  people  themselves  will  proceed  to  discuss  the 
question  of  slavery,  and  finally  to  devise  means  for 
its  abolition. 

My  friends,  I  do  not  propose  to  keep  you  longer. 
I  wish,  in  conclusion,  to  ask  you  to  consider  how 
great  the  question  is  that  you  are  called  upon  to 


60  SLAVERY,  ETC. 

determine.  It  is  none  other  than  the  question  of 
the  freedom  of  these  vast  Territories,  from  the 
summits  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  towards  the  Mis 
sissippi  River  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Pacific  Ocean 
on  the  other,  —  Territories  sufficient  to  form  ten  or 
twenty  new,  influential,  and  populous  States.  Would 
it  not  be,  not  only  a  calamity,  but  a  disgrace,  to  the 
people  of  this  country,  if  at  this  moment,  when 
Russia  has  emancipated  her  millions  of  serfs  and 
provided  for  their  education ;  when  Hungary  is 
already  contemplating  her  own  redemption  from 
Austria ;  when  Italy  is  freeing  herself  from  the 
Bourbons  and  from  the  Pope ;  when,  in  the  lan 
guage  of  one  of  our  poets,  — 

"  Voices  from  her  mountains  speak, 

Appenines  to  Alps  reply, 
Vale  to  vale  and  peak  to  peak 
Toss  the  old,  remembered  cry, 

' ITALY  SHALL  BE  FREE! ' "  — 

the  millions  of  people  on  this  continent  should  des 
ecrate  to  slavery  a  territory  equal  to  the  thirteen 
original  States  of  the  Union  ? 


61 


SECESSION. 

AN    ADDRESS    DELIVERED    AT    CHARLESTOWN,   MASS.,   ON    THE    EVE 
OP  THE  EIGHTH  OF  JANUARY,  1861. 

IT  is  a  melancholy  circumstance  in  our  experience, 
that  an  assembly  of  American  citizens  should  be 
convened  under  the  shadow  of  Bunker  Hill,  and 
within  sight  of  Faneuil  Hall,  to  consider  whether, 
and  by  what  means,  the  Union  of  the  American 
States  can  be  preserved.  But  it  is  only  by  ex- 
igpncies  and  trials  that  the  greatness  possible  to  an 
individual  or  a  nation  is  developed ;  and,  under 
Providence,  I  yet  believe  that  the  wisdom  and 
virtue  and  power  of  the  American  people  are  suf 
ficient  to  exact  of  posterity,  for  the  men  of  this  gen 
eration  who  are  at  once  true  to  Liberty  and  Union, 
the  admiration  and  homage  which  we  accord  to 
those  of  our  ancestors  who  inaugurated  a  system  of 
popular  liberty,  and  organized  the  Union  of  the 
States  on  this  continent.  Yielding  what  is  due 
to  difference  of  civilization  and  circumstances,  our 
experience  corresponds  to  that  of  the  renowned 
nations  of  ancient  and  modern  times. 

Institutions  may  protect  the  rights  of  a  people ; 
but  they  have  never  essentially  changed  the  charac 
ter  of  men.  Personal  ambition,  envy,  disappoint 
ment,  and  hatred,  organizing  themselves  in  base 


62  SECESSION. 

and  dangerous  conspiracies,  have  waited  upon  every 
prosperous  commonwealth.  Vain  hope  it  was,  in  the 
founders  of  these  States  and  of  this  confederacy,  that 
they  and  theirs  should  escape  the  evil  to  which  free 
governments  have  been  ever  exposed ! 

But,  oh,  what  excellency  of  wisdom  it  was,  that 
in  free  schools ;  a  free  press ;  a  religion  untrammelled 
by  law;  a  clergy  identified  with  the  interests,  the 
hopes,  and  the  fortunes  of  the  people ;  the  right  of 
every  citizen  to  bear  arms;  and  the  recognized 
though  limited  sovereignty  of  each  State,  —  they  se 
cured  liberty  to  all  the  generations  of  men  on  this 
continent,  and  set  an  example  which  the  nations  of 
the  earth  shall  gladly  imitate !  Nor  is  it  improbable, 
that  the  trial  through  which  we  are  passing  will 
demonstrate,  more  than  any  previous  experience,  our 
capacity  to  reconcile  liberty  and  law. 

No  citizen  ought  now  to  be  surprised  or  alarmed. 
And  I  may  appeal  to  those  of  you  who  honored  me 
with  your  presence  on  a  former  occasion,  that  noth 
ing  has  yet  transpired,  of  which  you  were  not,  in 
general  terms  at  least,  fully  forewarned.  Looking 
to  events  subsequent  to  the  6th  of  November,  I  then 
said  :  "  The  slaveholders  will  not  loose  their  grasp 
upon  the  treasury,  the  army,  the  navy,  all  the  chief 
offices  of  government  at  home  and  abroad,  without 
active,  possibly  not  without  violent,  resistance.  The 
lovers  of  power  and  the  enemies  of  the  Union  will 
combine"  The  conspiracy  against  the  Union,  of 
which,  alas !  there  is  now  but  too  ample  evidence, 
was  then  announced,  and  some  of  the  conspirators 
pointed  out.  We  knew  then  that  unbridled  license 
and  unblushing  corruption  existed  in  the  govern- 


SECESSION.  63 

ment :  but  we  did  not  know  that  three  traitors  to 
the  Union  were  members  of  the  President's  Cabinet; 
that  the  President  himself — unwittingly,  as  we  may 
now  hope  —  was  the  instrument  of  their  designs ; 
that  munitions  of  war  in  great  abundance  were  dis 
tributed  in  Southern  forts  and  arsenals ;  that  these 
forts  and  arsenals  were  purposely  kept  in  a  defence 
less  state,  that  their  contents  might  easily  and  surely 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  secessionists ;  that  our  small 
navy  was  unnecessarily  employed  in  distant  seas; 
that  the  strongholds  of  the  nation  were  wilfully  ex 
posed  to  the  attacks  of  the  enemies  of  the  Union ;  and, 
finally,  that  a  chief  officer  of  the  government,  the 
head  of  the  War  Department,  had,  without  the  knowl 
edge  of  the  President,  entered  into  an  agreement, 
by  which  South  Carolina,  the  leader  of  the  rebellion, 
was  put  in  a  position  to  seize  the  forts  in  the  harbor 
of  Charleston,  without  danger  to  those  engaged  in 
the  treason. 

One  simple  act  of  instinctive  patriotic  devotion  to 
the  country  has  precipitated  events,  disclosed  the 
plot,  startled  the  traitors,  awakened  the  President  to 
his  duty,  aroused  and  concentrated  the  energies  of 
the  people.  So  long  as  the  incorruptible  integrity 
of  the  captors  of  Andre  shall  be  remembered;  so 
long  as  men  shall  be  moved  to  sympathy  by  the 
winter  horrors  of  Valley  Forge ;  so  long  as  the  com 
mon  trials  and  common  dangers  endured  by  the  men 
of  the  South  and  the  North  shall  be  recognized, — so 
long  will  the  people  of  this  country  cherish  the  wise 
act  and  sturdy  patriotism  of  Major  Anderson.  Nor 
is  it  to  be  deemed  among  the  least  of  the  fortuitous 
circumstances  of  that  movement,  that  its  author  is  a 


64  SECESSION. 

s'on  of  the  South  and  a  citizen  of  Kentucky.  And  I 
doubt  not  the  time  shall  come,  when  the  States  of  the 
South,  with  one  accord,  shall  acknowledge  their  in 
debtedness  to  the  commander  of  Fort  Sumter.  Nor 
should  any  man  of  this  generation  forget  how  great 
the  relief  he  experienced  when  the  intelligence 
reached  him  that  the  exposed  band  at  Fort  Moid- 
trie,  numbering  scarcely  one-fourth  as  many  as  the 
defenders  of  Thermopylae,  had  taken  refuge  in  Fort 
Sumter.  Men  realized  then  how  powerless  secession 
is  and  ever  must  be  in  individual  States,  while  the 
general  government  holds  fortifications  in  the  har 
bors,  that  can  neither  be  taken  nor  wisely  attacked 
nor  safely  menaced.  And  though,  in  the  long  annals 
of  our  national  life,  it  shall  here  and  there  be  written 
that  occasionally  and  temporarily  passion  usurped 
the  throne  of  reason,  and  madness  was  installed  in 
the  seat  of  justice,  it  will  also  appear  that  the  power 
and  integrity  of  the  nation  were  everywhere  dis 
played,  and  the  banner  of  the  republic,  without  one 
star  dimmed  or  one  stripe  erased,  everywhere  pro 
claimed  the  truth  that  only  in  the  Union  is  there 
peace. 

The  world's  history  will  furnish  few  chapters  more 
interesting  and  instructive  than  a  true  record  of  the 
events  of  the  last  sixty  days  in  America,  —  how  a 
mighty  nation  found  itself  suddenly  the  victim  of  a 
widespread  and  dangerous  conspiracy,  and  dissever 
ance  of  territory  and  civil  war  imminent ;  how  the 
government  was  corrupted,  its  chief  officers  engaged 
in  treason,  and,  under  one  pretext  and  another,  flee 
ing  from  the  capital ;  how  its  treasury  was  drained, 
and  its  credit  destroyed;  how  confidence  was  im- 


SECESSION.  65 

paired,  industry  paralyzed,  business  prostrated ; 
then  how  reason  resumed  its  sway,  justice  asserted 
its  supremacy,  men  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  re 
public  ;  then  how  the  misled  escaped  from  the 
meshes  of  traitors,  the  wavering  became  loyal,  and 
the  people,  regardless  of  party  ties  and  the  calls  of 
weak  or  treasonable  leaders,  announced  the  doctrine 
that  not  one  inch  of  territory  shall  be  severed  from 
the  American  Union ;  and,  finally,  how,  in  all  and 
through  all  and  above  all,  were  seen  the  forms  and 
heard  the  voices  of  two  heroes  of  two  wars,  —  one 
born  in  the  South  and  the  other  in  the  North, — 
who  rebuked  treason,  defended  the  Union,  and  gave 
assurance  to  the  country  that  the  army  of  the  re 
public  would  prove  true  to  the  interests  of  the 
republic. 

We  may  anticipate,  but  we  cannot  fix,  the  judg 
ment  of  posterity  concerning  these  events ;  and, 
indeed,  what  more  interests  us  is  the  discovery  of  a 
safe  way  of  escape  from  the  dangers  that  remain. 

The  first  necessity  of  this  inquiry  relates  to  the 
causes,  the  means,  and  the  steps  by  which  we  have 
become  involved  in  the  present  difficulties. 

At  the  foundation  of  our  public  and  national 
troubles  lies  the  institution  of  African  slavery.  All 
theories  concerning  the  causes  of  the  present  dis 
turbances  rest  upon  this  foundation. 

To  be  sure,  there  was,  independently  of  slavery,  a 
distinctive  difference  between  the  settlers  of  Virginia 
and  the  country  south,  and  the  settlers  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  New  York,  and  New  England.  But  this 
difference  could  never  have  disturbed  the  harmony 
of  our  national  relations. 

5 


66  SECESSION. 

The  disturbing  influence  of  slavery  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  it  is  recognized  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
country.  But  slaves  are  not  recognized  as  property, 
nor  is  the  riglitfulness  of  slaveholding  recognized ; 
though  slavery,  as  an  institution,  is  recognized  as  an 
element  of  political  power  in  the  government  of  the 
country.  And,  by  this  recognition,  the  extension  of 
slavery  to  Territories  that  might  ultimately  seek 
admission  as  States  into  the  American  Union  became 
a  question  of  interest  and  of  right,  under  the  Consti 
tution,  to  every  citizen  of  the  republic. 

Various  expedients  for  the  limitation  of  this  right, 
or  the  transfer  of  its  exercise,  have  been  devised ; 
and  all  have  signally  failed.  Whether  the  citizen  is 
to  be  deprived  of  a  portion  of  political  power  by  the 
extension  of  slavery  to  a  new  Territory,  the  ultimate 
admission  of  that  Territory  as  a  slave  State  into  the 
Union,  a  partial  representation  of  its  slaves  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  and  in  the  Electoral  Col 
leges,  are  questions  of  individual  personal  right  in 
the  government  of  the  country,  which  cannot  be 
transferred  properly  to  the  settlers  of  the  Territory, 
or  to  the  Supreme  Court,  but  can  be  disposed  of  only 
by  the  action  of  the  people  who  are  already  in  the 
Union  as  citizens  of  the  several  States.  This  demo 
cratic  republican  doctrine  would  never  have  been 
denied,  had  not  the  cotton  culture  assumed  majestic 
proportions,  and  had  not  the  increase  of  free  States 
alarmed  the  ambitious  leaders  of  the  South.  From 
the  first  fact  is  derived  the  significant  and  menacing 
expression,  Cotton  is  King  ;  and,  from  the  latter,  the 
conciousness  of  power  which  leads  the  States  of  the 
North  to  imitate  the  example  of  the  Antonines ;  and, 


SECESSION.  67 

regulating  their  conduct  by  justice,  they  are  as  little 
disposed  to  endure  as  to  offer  an  injury.  As  between 
the  States  of  this  Union,  free  and  slave,  there  is  no 
conflict  whatever.  The  duty  of  each  and  all  under 
the  Constitution  is  plain.  If  the  States  had  been  left 
to  themselves,  that  duty  would  have  been,  generally, 
freely  and  faithfully  performed. 

But  as  between  the  claim  of  the  slave  States  to 
extend  the  institution  of  slavery  to  the  Territories, 
and  the  counter  claim  and  purpose  of  the  free  States 
to  consecrate  all  these  Territories  to  freedom,  there 
is  an  irrepressible  conflict.  The  troubles  between 
the  States  are  due  to  the  re-action  ary  influence 
of  the  revolutionary  policy  connected  with,  and 
the  events  that  have  transpired  in,  the  Territo 
ries. 

The  policy*  of  excluding  slavery  from  the  Terri 
tories  is  older  than  the  Constitution.  It  dates  from 
1784,  when  proposed  in  the  Continental  Congress 
by  Mr.  Jefferson ;  and  there  has  never  been  a 
moment  of  time  since  when  the  free  States  were 
not  in  favor  of  its  exclusion.  No  change  in  this 
particular  can  be  expected,  and  probably  none  is 
expected,  by  the  South.  ' 

That  the  South  has  been  greatly  disappointed  in 
the  increase  of  wealth,  population,  and  number  of  the 
free  States,  there  is  no  doubt.  In  1819,  a  writer  in 
Niles's  Register  assumed,  as  the  basis  of  his  predic 
tions  concerning  the  future  of  the  two  sections,  that 
not  more  than  one  free  State  would  be  formed  out 
of  the  Illinois  country,  as  he  called  the  North-west, 
previous  to  1850.  In  1860,  that  same  country,  with 
the  addition  of  the  single  State  of  Ohio,  contained 


68  SECESSION. 

a  population  equal  to  the  free  inhabitants  of  the  fif 
teen  slave  States ;  while  Florida,  which  the  writer 
proposed  to  set  off  against  the  Illinois  country,  is 
in  the  Union,  but  with  a  single  representative  only  in 
the  lower  house  of  Congress. 

Each  census  since  1810  has  disclosed  the  impor 
tant  fact,  that  the  increase  of  population  is  chiefly  in 
the  free  States ;  and  each  decennial  apportionment 
of  representation  in  Congress  has  transferred  politi 
cal  power  from  the  slave  to  the  free  States.  Hence 
four  decennial  periods  have  been  periods  of  intense 
excitement ;  and  at  each  the  friends  of  the  Union 
have  been  alarmed  for  its  safety.  The  years  1820, 
1830,  1850,  and  1860  are  marked  as  crises  in  the 
affairs  of  the  country ;  and  we  necessarily  connect 
the  revolutionary  spirit  manifested  at  each  epoch 
with  the  sensible  realization  of  the  los*s  of  political 
power.  The  vigor  with  which  General  Jackson, 
in  1832,  wielded  the  authority  of  the  government 
against  nullification,  had  paralyzed  South  Carolina, 
and  destroyed  her  men;  so  that,  in  1840,  there  was 
neither  capacity  nor  spirit  for  rebellion.  More 
over,  the  promise  of  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
though  never  reconciling  the  more  comprehensive 
sagacity  of  the  statesmen  of  South  Carolina,  yet 
served  for  the  moment  to  divert  the  attention  of  the 
Southern  mind  from  the  threatening  preponderance 
of  the  North.  The  Mexican  war  is  more  intimately 
connected  with  our  present  troubles  than  is  gener 
ally  believed.  Many  ambitious  men  took  an  active 
part  in  the  field.  They  saw  at  once  the  wealth  and 
the  weakness  of  that  enervated  and  effete  republic. 
Especially  was  it  apparent  to  those  interested  in 


SECESSION.  69 

slavery,  that  Mexico  and  Central  America  offered 
golden  opportunities  for  the  extension  of  territory 
and  the  increase  of  power. 

It  may  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  the  fact,  that  the 
major  part  of  the  general  officers  of  the  Mexican 
war,  who  were  called  from  civil  life  to  the  army, 
have  since  been  found  acting  together  in  the  political 
affairs  of  the  country ;  and,  as  early  as  1850,  a  secret 
organization  was  contemplated  by  which  the  policy 
of  the  Democratic  party  was  to  be  controlled. 

It  was  in  1850,  also,  that  the  first  of  a  series  of 
congressional  measures  was  adopted  that  threatened 
the  integrity  of  the  Union.  I  refer  to  the  Fugitive- 
slave  Law,  with  its  denial  of  right  of  trial  by  jury. 
Had  this  been  secured  in  the  State  where  the  alleged 
fugitive  was  found,  or  in  that  from  which  he  escaped, 
there  would  have  been  a  substantial  and  general 
acquiescence  in  the  enforcement  of  the  law.  But 
the  secessionists,  neglecting  the  example  of  General 
Washington,  who  only  desired  the  return  of  a  fugi 
tive  if  it  could  be  secured  without  offence  to  the 
feelings  of  the  people  among  whom  the  slave  might 
be  sojourning,  demanded  the  passage  of  a  law  un 
necessarily  repugnant  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  free 
States.  Thus  was  the  work  of  alienation  commenced, 
and  thus  did  mutual  hostility  supplant  a  common 
loyalty  to  the  Union.  Nor  was  it  an  ordinary  in 
sult  to  the  integrity  of  the  people  of  the  free  States, 
that  the  law  was  framed  upon  the  theory  that  a  jury 
of  the  country  would  not  find  the  fact  according  to 
the  evidence.  It  is  my  firm  and  conscientious  belief 
that  the  verdicts  of  juries  would  have  been  governed 
by  the  testimony  and  the  law,  and  that  the  exceptions 


70  SECESSION. 

would  have  been  so  few  as  not  to  have  excited  atten 
tion  anywhere.     Nor  is  it  improbable  that  a  pro 
vision  for  trial  by  jury,  under  the  supervision  and 
direction  of  judges  of  the  United-States  courts  in 
the  States  from  which  the  escape  was  alleged  to  have 
been  made,  with  proper  securities  for  the  return  of 
persons  who  might  be  found  entitled  to  their  freedom, 
would  have  relieved  the  North  of  all  serious  appre 
hensions  concerning  personal  liberty.     But  neither  1 
course  was  adopted ;   and  hence  the  Fugitive-slave   j 
Law  of  1850  has  been  the  occasion  of  unmitigated 
evil  to  the  country,  and  was  the  first  of  a  series 
of  measures  designed  to  effect  a  separation  of  these    1 
States. 

Next,  the  conspirators  against  the  Union,  mislead 
ing  Mr.  Douglas,  and  probably  abusing  the  confi 
dence  that  he  reposed  in  them,  secured  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Like  all  measures 
ostensibly  for  peace  that  have  marked  our  public 
proceedings  for  ten  years,  this  act  imbittered  and 
intensified  party  and  sectional  strifes  at  Washington, 
and  involved  the  nation  itself  in  civil  war  on  the 
plains  of  Kansas. 

Those  unhappy  results  were  all  foreseen.  When 
Congress  refused  to  declare  the  condition  of  a  Terri 
tory  that  was  inviting  both  to  free  and  slave  labor, 
what  else  than  civil  war  could  have  been  expected  ? 
Indeed,  war  could  not  have  been  averted.  Congress 
virtually  invited  the  twenty-five  million  of  American 
people  in  these  States,  entertaining  opposite  and  hos 
tile  opinions  upon  slavery,  to  assemble  by  their  rep 
resentatives,  and  decide  whether  Kansas  should  be 
free  or  slave.  The  decision  of  the  question,  so  sub- 


SECESSION.  71 

mitted  and  so  made,  was  necessarily  offensive  to  the 
defeated  party ;  and  hence  we  had,  not  only  civil  war 
in  Kansas,  but  alienation  of  sentiment  throughout 
the  whole  country,  with  a  tendency  specific  and 
powerful  to  disunion  and  civil  and  servile  war, 
in  whose  lurid  flames  men  are  to-day,  like  spectres, 
walking. 

Next,  in  1856,  the  Democratic  party  was  required 
to  accept,  as  a  part  of  its  platform,  a  resolution,  on 
which  the  right  of  a  State  to  secede  from  the  Union 
can  be  logically  based. 

I  read  from  the  Cincinnati  Platform  of  1856  :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  we  recognize  the  right  of  the  people 
of  all  the  Territories,  including  Kansas  and  Nebraska, 
acting  through  the  legally  and  fairly  expressed  will  of  a 
majority  of  the  actual  residents,  and  whenever  the  number 
of  the  inhabitants  justifies  it,  to  form  a  constitution,  with 
or  without  domestic  slavery,  and  be  admitted  into  the 
Union  upon  terms  of  perfect  equality  with  the  other 
States." 

By  this  resolution,  one  question  only — the  ques 
tion  of  population — is  reserved  to  the  old  States: 
this  being  settled  affirmatively,  then  the  right  of  & 
Territory  to  admission  into  the  Union  is  declared  to 
be  absolute  and  final.  Thus,  upon  the  absolute 
right  of  a  Territory  to  admission  into  the  confederacy 
without  the  free  consent  of  the  existing  members  is 
naturally,  fairly,  and  logically  based  the  right  of  a 
State  to  secede  from  the  Union,  without  regard  to  the 
wishes  or  opinions  or  power  of  the  Union  itself. 
And  thus,  in  1856,  did  the  Democratic  party  ac 
cept  the  doctrine  of  secession  as  a  constitutional 
doctrine. 


72  SECESSION. 

Following  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Buchanan  in 
March,  1857,  and  foreshowed  by  his  inaugural 
address,  came  the  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  in 
the  case  of  Dred  Scott.  I  forbear  to  comment 
upon  the  opinion  itself;  but  it  widened  the  chasm, 
already  fearful,  between  the  two  sections  of  the 
Union. 

So  logical  are  events  in  this  country,  and  so  in 
flexible  are  the  laws  which  govern  the  increase  of 
population  and  the  distribution  of  political  power 
among  the  States,  that  the  application  of  the  doctrine 
of  secession  and  the  overthrow  of  the  Union  could 
not  have  been  postponed  beyond  1860,  unless,  in 
deed,  they  were  indefinitely  deferred. 

The  census  of  1860  numbers  the  swarming  myriads 
of  the  North,  and  measures  and  fixes  the  representa 
tive  power  of  the  two  sections  for  ten  years.  This 
is,  in  itself,  a  revolution  such  as  takes  place  in  no 
other  country  on  the  globe.  The  South  were  fore 
warned  by  the  censuses  of  1840  and  1850 ;  and 
they  foresaw  that  in  a  national  Democratic  Con 
vention,  acting  under  the  two-thirds  rule,  they  would 
be  able  barely  to  dictate  the  nominee  of  the  party  in 
1864.  This  fact  also  measures  the  loss  of  power 
in  the  country  and  in  Congress. 

Since  1850,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the 
country,  the  free  States  have  commenced  the  work  of 
colonization  over  the  border.  This  work  will  go  on. 
Not  offensively,  nor  by  plan,  but  in  obedience  to  laws 
of  migration  and  population  which  no  mere  human 
power  can  resist  or  permanently  control.  This  col 
onization  threatens  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Mis 
souri,  in  portions  of  Texas  and  Virginia,  and  in 
Delaware. 


SECESSION.  73 

From  and  through  Kansas  we  may  expect  a  line 
of  migration  southward,  over  New  Mexico  and  Ari 
zona,  into  Sonora  and  Chihuahua.  Across  the  Isth 
mus  there  will  be  one  or  more  lines  of  free  States 
under  English  or  American  rule,  and  in  either  case 
hostile  to  slavery.  The  construction  of  a  railway  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean  promises  to  unite  the  country  east 
and  west  more  firmly ;  and  hence  the  importance 
of  action  by  the  South  before  the  consummation  of 
these  schemes  for  enlarging  and  strengthening  the 
Union. 

The  first  act  of  1860  in  the  drama  of  secession 
was  the  destruction  of  the  Democratic  party ;  for  I 
feel  bound  to  admit,  that,  while  the  integrity  of  the 
Democratic  party  was  preserved,  it  was  difficult,  if 
not  impossible,  to  destroy  the  Union.  Not  that  the 
Democratic  party  was  more  loyal  to  the  Constitution 
or  the  Union  than  other  parties ;  but,  being  ever 
swift  to  obey  the  calls  of  slavery,  it  was  not  easy  for 
slavery  to  make  an  issue  with  it. 

Hence,  in  the  Convention  at  Charleston,  an  issue 
was  forced  upon  the  party  for  the  express  purpose  of 
driving  it  from  power.  Eight  States  withdrew  from 
the  Convention  before  a  candidate  was  nominated  or 
a  platform  adopted.  It  was  a  blow  struck  at  the 
Union  over  the  falling  body  of  the  Democracy.  The 
manifest  purpose  was  to  sever  the  Democratic  party, 
give  the  election  to  the  Republicans,  whether  by  nu 
merical  strength  they  were  entitled  to  it  or  not,  divide 
the  Union,  seize  the  capital,  prevent  the  inauguration 
of  the  new  President,  hold  the  archives  of  the  gov 
ernment,  usurp  the  command  of  the  army  and  the 
navy,  and,  upon  the  basis  of  legitimacy  and  right 


74  SECESSION. 

even,  to  re-form  and  reconstruct  a  military  slavehold- 
ing  empire  in  the  South,  which  should  command 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
stretch  to  the  Pacific  between  Upper  and  Lower 
California,  and  finally  absorb  Cuba,  Mexico,  and 
Central  America.  Thus,  under  the  corrupting  and 
dechristianizing  influences  of  slavery,  is  it  the  pur 
pose  of  these  leaders  to  convert  the  fairest  portions 
of  the  American  continent  to  the  rule  of  a  military 
despotism. 

Governor  Pickens,  of  South  Carolina,  in  his  inau 
gural  address,  says  the  new  government  will  be 
more  military  in  its  character  than  the  old  one. 
This  is  a  considerate  and  significant  statement  of 
the  policy  of  the  South.  Thus  far,  they  have  failed 
in  nothing ;  and  it  is  now  too  plain  to  require 
proof,  that  the  Democracy  united  would  have  com 
manded  the  electoral  vote  of  the  country  in  1860. 
In  the  natural  order  of  events,  the  Repiiblican 
triumph  should  have  been  deferred  to  1864.  But 
the  Republican  party  has  triumphed,  not  so  much 
by  its  own  inherent  strength,  as  by  the  systematic 
and  pre-arranged  divisions  of  its  opponents.  It 
seeks  by  constitutional  means,  and  in  constitutional 
ways,  to  administer  the  government  of  this  country. 
The  secession  leaders  are  now  able  to  rally  the 
people  of  their  respective  States  upon  an  issue 
favorable  to  their  treasonable  schemes.  South 
Carolina,  with  a  defiant  and  warlike  spirit,  aban 
dons  the  Union.  The  seven  other  States  that 
went  out  of  the  Charleston  Convention  will  soon 
follow  South  Carolina.  If  the  question  of  seces 
sion  is  submitted  to  the  people  of  North  Carolina, 


SECESSION.  75 

Maryland,  and  Virginia  before  the  4th  of  March 
next,  they  also  may  join  the  rebellion  against  the 
Union.  The  leaders  resolve  upon  separate  se 
cession,  because  they  well  know  that  no  union 
among  themselves  can  ever  be  effected  unless 
they  first  cut  the  cords  that  bind  them  to  the 
existing  government. 

In  this  juncture  of  affairs,  we  anxiously  ask, 
what  more  remains  to  be  done  ?  I  infer,  from 
what  I  see  and  hear,  that  most  of  my  countrymen 
believe  that  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to 
the  Presidency  is  to  be  declared  in  the  customary 
way,  and  that  he  is  to  be  inaugurated  at  Wash 
ington  on  the  4th  of  March  next.  The  intentions 
of  men  are  hidden  from  our  view ;  but  the  neces 
sities  of  the  seceders  we  can  appreciate,  and  the 
logic  of  events  we  can  comprehend.  It  is  a 
necessity  of  the  South  to  prevent  the  inauguration 
of  Lincoln.  If  he  is  inaugurated  tat  Washington 
on  the  4th  of  March,  the  cause  of  the  secessionists 
is  lost  for  ever.  In  all  their  proceedings,  they  have 
been  wise  and  logical,  thus  far ;  and  I  assume  that 
resistance  to  the  inauguration  of  Lincoln  is  a  part 
of  their  well-laid  scheme.  No  man  can  now  tell 
whether  this  scheme  will  be  abandoned,  whether 
it  will  be  tried  and  fail,  or  whether  it  will  be  tried 
with  success.  I  believe  it  will  be  tried. 

True,  the  administration  has  put  itself  on  the 
side  of  order ;  the  city  is  alarmed  for  its  existence, 
knowing  full  well,  that,  if  it  is  given  up  to  the 
military  or  the  mob,  and  the  representatives  of 
eighteen  free  States  are,  for  a  single  hour  only, 
fugitives  from  the  capital  of  the  country,  its  re- 


76  SECESSION. 

occupation  will  be  upon  terms  less  agreeable  to 
the  inhabitants  of  the  District  and  the  neighboring 
States.  The  possession  of  Washington  does,  in  a 
considerable  degree,  control  the  future  of  this 
country.  Believing,  as  I  do,  in  the  stern  purposes 
of  these  men ;  knowing,  also,  that  Maryland  and 
Virginia  can  command,  on  the  instant,  the  presence 
of  large  bodies  of  volunteers,  —  I  deem  it  only 
an  act  of  common  prudence,  for  the  free  States, 
without  menaces,  without  threats,  with  solemn 
and  official  declarations  even  that  no  offensive 
movement  will  be  undertaken,  to  organize,  and 
put  upon  a  war  footing,  a  force  of  one  hundred 
thousand  men,  who  may  be  moved  at  any  moment 
when  desired  by  the  authorities  of  the  country. 

What,  then,  will  be  our  position  ?  The  way 
ought  to  be  open  for  the  inauguration  of  Mr. 
Lincoln ;  but  there  are  those  who  demand  a  com 
promise  as  a  jstep  necessary  and  preliminary  to 
that  event.  I  do  not  now  speak  of  the  demand 
made  upon  States,  in  their  sovereign  capacity,  to 
repeal  certain  laws,  concerning  personal  liberty, 
alleged  to  be  unconstitutional. 

The  duty  of  States  in  that  particular  is  plain. 
If  they  have  laws  upon  their  statute-books  that 
are  unconstitutional  and  offensive,  they  should  be 
repealed,  as  an  act  of  duty ;  if  they  have  laws  that 
are  offensive  and  unnecessary,  they  should  be 
repealed,  as  an  act  of  comity :  but  if  constitutional 
laws  exist,  that  are  necessary  for  the  protection 
of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  citizens,  though  they 
be  offensive  to  other  men  and  States,  they  must 
stand,  though  the  heavens  fall.  Action  upon  such 


SECESSION.  77 

laws,  whether  ending  in  revision  or  repeal,  is  in 
no  proper  sense  a  compromise.  , 

The  compromises  of  which  I  speak  are  the 
various  propositions  before  Congress,  or  its  com 
mittees,  which  proceed  upon  the  idea  that  the 
election  by  the  people  of  a  President  of  the  re 
public,  in  constitutional  ways  and  by  constitutional 
means  only,  shall  not  be  consummated  by  his 
peaceful  inauguration,  unless  the  character  of  the 
government  is  previously  fundamentally  changed, 
or  pledges  given  that  such  changes  shall  be  per 
mitted.  I  see  no  great  evidence  that  these  de 
mands  are  to  be  acceded  to ;  but  I  see  that  the 
demands  themselves  attack  the  fundamental  prin 
ciples  of  republican  liberty.  If  disappointed  men, 
be  they  few  or  many,  be  they  conspirators  and 
traitors  or  misguided  zealots  merely,  can  interpose 
their  will,  and  arrest  or  divert  or  contravene  the 
public  judgment,  constitutionally  expressed,  then 
our  government  is  no  longer  one  of  laws,  but  a 
government  of  men. 

I  am  not  of  those  who  hold  that  the  Constitution 
of  the  country  is  perfect,  and  ought  never  to  be 
changed ;  but  I  do  hold,  that,  while  it  exists,  it 
should  be  observed.  Let,  then,  Mr.  Lincoln  be 
peacefully  inaugurated ;  let  him  declare  his  own 
views ;  let  him  administer  the  government,  that 
men  may  judge  his  administration  by  experience : 
then,  if  there  be  persons  or  States  whose  rights 
need  additional  securities,  I  doubt  not  that  he 
and  his  friends  will  readily  grant  them.  But  the 
secessionists  know  that  their  only  hope  is  in  tho 
precipitancy  of  their  measures  and  the  extrava- 


78  SECESSION. 

gance  of  their  demands.  The  leaders  understand 
that  the  masses  are  deceived,  and  that  even  a  brief 
delay  will  rekindle  their  loyalty  to  the  Union,  and 
that,  in  two  or  four  years,  the  confederacy  would 
be  stronger  than  ever  before.  If,  then,  present 
compromise  be  impracticable ;  if  seceding  States 
deny  a  delay,  as  they  probably  will ;  if  they  plunge 
the  country  into  the  horrors  of  civil  war  by  the 
actual  shedding  of  blood,  —  is  it  not  wise  to  submit 
to  a  peaceful  dissolution  of  the  confederacy  ?  This 
depends,  gentlemen,  upon  your  readiness  to  affirm 
one  of  two  propositions,  —  either  that  secession 
is  a  right  secured  to  each  State  by  the  Constitu 
tion  ;  or,  denying  this,  but  admitting  the  right  of 
revolution,  that  the  seceding  States  are  too  power 
ful  to  justify  resistance  on  our  part. 

If  secession  is  a  constitutional  right,  it  is  a  right 
appertaining  to  each  State ;  and,  if  it  is  the  right 
of  each  State,  it  is  the  right  of  a  mere  majority 
of  the  citizens  of  the  smallest  State  in  the  Union 
to  decide  whether  the  Union  shall  longer  exist. 
And  hence  it  follows  practically  that  we  have  no 
government.  A  question,  then,  in  which  we  are 
all  vastly  more  concerned  than  we  are  in  any  thing 
that  it  is  possible  for  the  seceding  States  to  do, 
is  the  settlement  for  all  time  of  the  question  of 
the  right  of  the  American  Union  to  exist;  not  the 
right  to  exist  in  subordination  to  the  will  of  a 
State,  but  an  original,  supreme  right,  derived  from 
the  people  of  the  whole  country,  from  the  people 
of  all  the  States. 

If  secession  is  not  a  constitutional  right,  then  all 
organized,  formidable,  open,  belligerent  movements 


SECESSION.  79 

for  the  disruption  of  this  Union  are  rebellions; 
and  all  persons  engaged  in  them,  and  their  aiders 
and  abettors,  are  rebels  and  traitors.  It  is  the 
essence  of  all  governments,  that  they  have  power 
to  suppress  insurrections ;  and,  by  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  special  authority  for  this 
purpose  is  given.  Coercion,  then,  —  not  of  a  State, 
which  is  too  intangible  for  that  purpose,  but  of  the 
people  of  every  State  and  Territory  who  may  be 
in  resistance  to  the  authority  and  laws  of  the 
Union,  —  is  a  right  in  the  federal  government, 
derived  alike  from  the  Constitution  and  from  the 
necessities  of  national  life.  Nor  does  it  follow 
that  the  State  governments  are  subordinate  to  the 
general  government;  but  each  has  a  sphere  of  its 
own,  and  each  is  supreme  in  that  sphere.  The 
opposite  doctrine  is  the  source  of  our  difficulties. 
In  1831,  on  the  4th  of  July,  Mr.  Calhonn  ga,yp,  thig,, 
toast  at  Pendleton,  S.C. :  "The  State  and  p:en- 
eral  governments :  each  imperfect  when  viewed.-as 
separate  and  _  distinct^  governments,  but,  taken 
as  a  whole,  forming  one  system T  each  checking  and 
controlling  t7ie__other.  unsurpassed  bv  any  work  of 
man  in  wisdom  ajid^sublimityJL  And  in  1860, 
South  Carolina,  failing  to  accomplish  all  that  she 
desired  in  the  control  of  the  general  government, 
enters  upon  the  suicidal  work  of  secession.  I  do 
not  say  that  active  and  warlike  coercive  measures 
are  necessary  and  wise  immediately ;  but  it  should 
be  understood  that  the  government  of  the  Union 
has  both  the  ability  and  the  purpose,  in  its  own 
time  and  in  its  own  way,  to  suppress  insurrections 
and  rebellions.  The  recent  shock  to  public  credit 


80  SECESSION. 

and  individual  enterprise  was  not  owing  to  the 
attempted  secession  of  one  or  many  States,  but  to 
the  fact  that  the  illogical  views  taken  by  the 
President  in  his  message  destroyed  the  government 
itself  by  denying  its  right  to  exist.  We  may  as 
well  admit  the  right  of  secession  in  a  State,  as  to 
deny  to  the  general  government  the  right  of  coer 
cion.  Practically,  in  either  case,  the  government 
is  at  an  end. 

I —  Will  the  people  maintain  the  Union  by  the  ex 
ercise  of  force?     Ultimately,  they  will,  if  it  prove 
1   necessary ;  and  for  that  purpose  the  free  States  will 
\,  become  a   unit.     We  have  no   alternative   in   this 
matter.     The  reasons  which  impel  us  to  resort  to 
force  are  too  powerful  to  permit  a  choice  on  our 
part. 

I.  Geographical  considerations.  —  From  the  Brit 
ish  possessions  trending  southward  are  three  great 
slopes,  two  single  and  one  double,  distinctly  sep 
arated  from  each  other,  yet  neither  is  so  divided  or 
broken  by  natural  lines  or  barriers  as  to  permit 
its  division  for  political  purposes,  —  the  Atlantic 
slope,  the  Mississippi  valley,  and  the  borders  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  The  writers  of  the  "Federalist" 
well  thought  it  practicable  to  form  one  confederacy 
between  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  the  Alleghanies, 
and  another  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Mis 
sissippi  River.  The  rapid  advance  of  civilization, 
and  the  construction  of  railways  and  telegraphs, 
have  dissipated  this  idea.  The  Rocky  Mountains 
are  still  a  barrier  sufficient  to  mark  the  limits  of 
independent  States.  The  railway  will  solve  the 
problem  of  the  union  of  the  Pacific  with  the 


SECESSION.  81 

Atlantic.  But  we  search  in  vain,  on  any  parallel 
of  latitude  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
for  a  line  or  barrier  that  can  mark  the  boundaries 
of  independent  States.  Naturehas  put  the  seal  of 
unity  upon  each  _nf  thpPft  throQ-grpqti 
divisions ;  and  Natures  orrip.r  will  r-nj 
permanently  Ji£  the  posEar  of  man. 

II.  The  trade  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.-^ After 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  is  the 
most  important  water  for  commercial  purposes  on 
the  surface  of  the  globe.  It  is  filled  with  fertile 
and  productive  islands  ;  it  touches  the  entire  cotton- 
growing  region  of  North  America,  that  seems  to 
hold  this  inland  sea  in  its  majestic  embrace ;  it  is 
the  region  of  valuable  woods,  of  precious  minerals ; 
it  is  the  thoroughfare  to  the  Pacific  by  the  shortest 
overland  routes  on  the  continent;  and,  above  all, 
it  receives  the  contributions  of  the  Father  of  Wa 
ters,  in  whose  valley,  within  a  hundred  years,  there 
shall  dwell  in  peace  and  plenty  a  hundred  million 
of  human  beings.  Other  men  may  expect  peace 
while  the  inhabitants  of  the  Upper  Mississippi 
follow  the  windings  of  the  waters,  that  trickle  from 
their  own  hills,  through  a  foreign  country,  to  the 
sea.  I  do  not.  And  may  we  not  here  suggestively 
remember,  that  migration  has  always  forced  itself 
southward,  and  that  the  Roman  armies,  enlisted  in 
ancient  Pannonia,  marched  a  thousand  miles  be 
yond  the  Tropic  of  Cancer  towards  the  equator  ? 

^IL.  By  dissolution,  we  abandon  the  trade  of  the 

Pacific  and  of  the  islands  and  continents  of  the  East. 

JY.^  The  business   and  wealth  of  all  our  cities 

have  for  their  foundation  the  unity  of  the  country. 


82  SECESSION. 

When  this  foundation  is  removed,  the  wealth  of 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  Chicago,  St.  Louis, 
New  Orleans,  and  Baltimore  will  be  essentially  and 
permanently  diminished.  We  should  be  oppressed 
with  attempts  to  establish  conflicting  custom-house 
regulations,  and  with  an  extensive  and  defenceless 
frontier. 

These  considerations  apply  with  equal  force  to 
the  South,  and  will  deter  them  in  a  degree  from 
pursuing  the  course  marked  out  by  the  leaders. 
There  are  also  additional  reasons  that  apply  exclu 
sively  to  the  South. 

I.  An  expensive  government  and  direct  taxation.  — 
The  suggestion  of  Governor  Pickens  must  be  fol 
lowed,  and  the  South  will  be  burdened  with  a  heavy 
military  organization.  A  change  of  government 
will  not  create  manufactures  or  commerce.  No 
one  supposes  that  a  line  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  can  ever  be  defended  against  contraband 
traders ;  and  hence  the  custom-house  duties  of  the 
two  sections  would  in  the  main  correspond.  The 
North  could  never  consent  to  a  lower  system  of 
duties  in  the  South,  and  the  result  would  leave 
commerce  in  the  hands  of  those  who  enjoy  it  to 
day.  We  shall  have  two  governments, — the  North 
ern  cheap,  with  large  revenues,  and  the  Southern 
expensive,  with  small  revenues.  In  the  Northern, 
direct  taxes  and  debts  for  general  purposes  would 
be  unknown ;  in  the  Southern,  debts  and  direct 
taxes  would  paralyze  industry,  dimmish  the  price 
of  property,  repel  immigration,  —  and  finally  the 
free  States  would  assume  the  control  of  the  conti 
nent  outside  of  the  slave  States. 


SECESSION.  83 

In  every  government,  there  is  a  limit  to  the  power 
of  taxation.  The  citizen  can  contribute  a  portion, 
great  or  small,  of  his  annual  income  ;  but,  whenever 
the  accumulations  of  former  years  are  taken,  the 
citizens  and  government  are  soon  involved  in  a 
common  ruin.  The  South  has  no  credit;  nor  can 
it  ever  have,  for  the  basis  of  credit  is  wanting.  Its 
net  annual  income  is  small.  Commerce  it  cannot 
create ;  the  power  of  taxation  will  be  insufficient 
for  a  state  of  peace  even ;  and  the  power  to  borrow 
money  in  the  North  or  in  Europe  is  denied  to  her 
by  well-remembered  circumstances  in  the  history 
of  individual  States,  as  well  as  by  the  recognized 
influence  of  her  social  and  industrial  policy. 

II.  Cotton  ceases  to  be  king  when  the  American 
Union  ceases  to  exist.  This  event  would  be  injuri 
ous  to  us  all.  It  is  well  that  cotton  is  king  of 
commerce,  but  we  can  never  allow  it  to  subjugate 
liberty.  A  division  of  the  Union  will  diminish  the 
cotton  crop  to  the  amount  of  twenty  or  thirty  per 
cent  annually,  during  the  continuance  of  the  strife 
between  the  sections.  Cotton  may  be  raised,  with 
differing  success,  over  a  belt  of  seventy  degrees  of 
latitude.  Nowhere  is  there  so  large  a  tract  of  lands 
fitted  to  produce  cotton  of  superior  staple  as  in  the 
United  States ;  but  the  cotton  regions  of  Central 
America,  South  America,  Africa,  and  Asia  are  quite 
sufficient  to  supply  the  present  demand  of  the 
world. 

The  political  disturbances  that  have  already  taken 
place  have  given  an  impulse  to  the  English  mind 
which  will  ultimately  prove  pernicious  to  the  great 
interest  of  America.  Lands  are  not  needed  for  the 


84  SECESSION. 

growth  of  cotton,  but  the  presence  of  qualified  la 
borers  upon  those  lands.  Now  that  the  interests  of 
England  and  Continental  Europe  are  put  in  jeopardy 
by  the  movements  of  the  South,  we  may  look  for 
more  vigorous  efforts  to  procure  supplies  of  cotton 
from  other  sources.  These  efforts  will  be  crowned 
with  success,  partial  or  complete ;  but  it  behooves 
the  South  to  put  an  end  to  a  controversy  which  will 
give  no  additional  security  to  slavery,  and  which 
may  result  in  the  overthrow  of  the  institution  itself, 
and  the  surrender  of  the  cotton-growing  power  to 
other  sections  of  the  globe.  A  diminution  in  the 
supply  of  American  cotton  works  an  increase  of  the 
article  elsewhere,  or  else  a  change  in  the  manufactur 
ing  industry  of  America  and  Europe.  In  either 
case,  the  South  first,  and  the  whole  country  second 
arily,  must  suffer.  The  reign  of  King  Cotton  must 
be  peaceful :  by  war,  he  will  be  dethroned. 

III.  The  movements  of  the  secessionists  encour 
age  and  forbode  servile  war.  I  fear  that  men  who 
have  defied  the  flag  of  the  republic  may  yet  have 
bitter  experience  touching  the  institution  of  slavery. 
By  the  Constitution,  we  are  bound  to  suppress  ser 
vile  insurrections ;  and  the  North  would  doubtless, 
whenever  the  exigency  should  arise,  act  in  conform 
ity  to  the  requirement.  But  who  can  or  will  be 
responsible  for  the  four  million  slaves,  when  the  flag 
of  the  Union  is  no  longer  recognized  in  the  slave 
States,  and  hostility  to  the  North  takes  possession 
of  men,  who,  more  than  any  besides,  are  interested 
in  promoting  loyalty  to  the  government  ?  Nor  will 
it  be  easy  for  the  North  to  prevent  hostile  incursions 
into  the  South.  If  men  sought  the  overthrow  of 


SECESSION.  85 

slavery  in  blood,  the  destruction  of  this  Union 
would  be  at  once  the  beginning  and  the  accomplish 
ment  of  their  design. 

IY.  The  Southerjo.  States  cannot  form  a  lasting 
Union  among  themselves.  Being  the  weaker  sec 
tion,  the  politics  and  diplomacy  of  the  North  would 
be  directed  to  promote  divisions  and  estrangements. 
The  northern  slave  States  would  gradually  lose 
their  interest  in  slavery ;  and  finally  the  Northern 
confederacy  would  aid  in  the  emancipation  of  their 
slaves  by  purchase,  and. receive  them  into  the  Union 
of  free  States.  Slavery  cannot  advance  northward : 
freedom,  with  the  Union  or  without  it,  will  advance 
southward,  and,  by  its  gentle  allurements,  bring 
back  State  after  State  into  the  Northern  confed 
eracy. 

If,  then,  peaceful  secession  were  possible,  there  is 
nothing  beyond  inviting  to  either  section,  and  de 
struction  surely  awaits  the  South.  But  peace  for 
any  number  of  years  is  not  possible ;  secession  is 
war,  and  those  who  weigh  the  circumstances  will 
so  treat  it  in  the  beginning. 

Will  fugitives  from  slavery  be  surrendered  ?  Will 
the  territorial  questions  be  answered  ?  Will  strife 
cease  on  the  borders  of  States  or  Territories  ?  Will 
there  not  be  bitter  and  bloody  struggles  for  the  pos 
session  of  New  Mexico  and  old  Mexico  ?  —  for  the 
control  of  Central  America  and  the  routes  to  the 
Pacific  ? 

And,  for  the  North,  there  is  the  additional  consid 
eration  that  we  cannot  consent  to  the  establishment 
of  a  slaveholding,  military  oligarchy  upon  our  south 
ern  side.  We  must  first,  then,  give  to  the  exist- 


86  SECESSION. 

ing  administration  whatever  support  may  be  needed 
for  the  execution  of  the  laws  and  the  preservation  of 
the  Union. 

We  must  look  for  the  peaceful  inauguration  of 
Mr.  Lincoln,  and  be  prepared  to  secure  his  inaugu 
ration  at  the  capital  of  the  country,  and  at  the  ap 
pointed  time,  by  the  presence  of  such  force  as  may 
be  demanded  by  those  officials  who  are  bound  to 
keep  the  peace.  Then  there  must  be  time  given 
for  the  organization  of  the  conservative  men  of  the 
South,  who  are  at  present  borne  down  by  an  auda 
city  and  tyranny  unknown  since  the  revolutionary  era 
of  France.  This  interval  will  at  once  exhaust  the 
revolutionists  of  the  seceding  States,  and  diminish 
the  number  and  force  of  the  prejudices  in  the  South 
ern  mind,  that  have  no  basis,  except  in  misrepresen 
tations  made  for  political  purposes. 

Nor  should  I  deem  it  unwise  for  the  North,  if  it 
may  do  so  without  serious  division  and  loss  of 
strength,  to  announce  its  readiness  to  aid  those 
States  that  desire  to  adopt  a  plan  of  emancipation, 
by  the  assumption,  on  the  part  of  the  general 
government,  of  a  portion  of  the  pecuniary  bur 
den.  In  so  far  as 'the  evil  is  general,  its  removal 
should  be  sought  through  common  and  mutual 
sacrifices. 

But  if,  unhappily,  neither  a  spirit  of  justice  in  us, 
nor  the  presence  of  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  seces 
sionists  which  cannot  be  overcome,  nor  the  exhaus 
tion  and  sacrifices  on  their  part  of  a  condition  of 
war  without  any  of  its  customary  honors  or  glories, 
shall  recall  them  to  their  loyalty  to  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union,  there  will  then  be  no  alternative  but 


SECESSION.  87 

to  preserve  the  one  and  compact  the  other  by  the 
exhibition  of  such  force  as  may  be  needed. 

When  allthings  else  have  failed,  fore*  is  thft  last 
resort  of  States,  whatever  may  have  been  the  theory 
of  their  organization.  And  we  shall,  I  doubt  not, 
if  these  but  possible  extremities  of  public  and  na 
tional  life  are  finally  to  be  presented  and  accepted, 
preserve  the  freedom  of  the  citizens  and  the  sover 
eignty  of  the  States. 

It  is,  indeed,  possible,  yet  not  probable,  that  the 
leaders  of  the  South,  maddened  by  ambition  and  dis 
appointment,  and  deceived  by  a  few  men  who  mis 
represent  the  opinions  and  purposes  of  the  North, 
may  seize  the  pillars  of  the  temple  of  the  nation, 
and  bring  it  down  in  ruins  upon  us  all.  But,  for 
one,  I  fear  not  any  such  catastrophe ;  and  I  accept 
the  future  of  the  country  with  the  utmost  confidence 
that  Liberty  and  Union  are  to  be  hereafter,  as  now, 
one  and  inseparable. 

The  words  which  I  addressed  to  Kossuth,  when, 
in  the  name  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  I  sought 
to  cheer  him  with  the  hope  that  Hungary  would  be 
restored  to  nationality  and  freedom,  I  now  address  to 
myself  and  to  you:  "  Liberty  can  never  die.  The 
generations  of  men  appear  and  pass  away ;  but  the 
aspirations  of  their  nature  are  immortal."  Slavery 
may  die.  The  republic  shall  live ! 


88 


CONCESSION  AND   COMPEOMISE. 


SPEECH  MADE  IN  PEACE  CONGRESS,  FEB.  18,  1861,  AS  REPORTED  BY 
L.  E.   CHITTENDEN. 


I  HA  YE  not  been  at  all  clear  in  my  own  mind  as 
to  when,  and  to  what  extent,  Massachusetts 
should  raise  her  voice  in  this  Convention.  She 
heard  the  voice  of  Virginia,  expressed  through  her 
resolutions,  in  this  crisis  of  our  country's  history. 
Massachusetts  hesitated,  not  because  she  was  un 
willing  to  respond  to  the  call  of  Virginia,  but 
because  she  thought  her  honor  touched  by  the  man 
ner  of  that  call  and  the  circumstances  attending  it. 
She  had  taken  part  in  the  election  of  the  6th  of 
November.  She  knew  the  result.  It  accorded 
well  with  her  wishes.  She  knew  that  the  govern 
ment  whose  political  head  for  the  next  four  years 
was  then  chosen,  was  based  upon  a  Constitution 
which  she  supposed  still  had  an  existence.  She  saw 
that  State  after  State  had  left  that  government,— 
seceded  is  the  word  used,  —  had  gone  out  from  this 
great  confederacy,  and  that  they  were  defying  the 
Constitution  and  the  Union. 

Charge  after  charge  has  been  vaguely  made 
against  the  North.  It  is  attempted  here  to  put  the 
North  on  trial.  I  have  listened  with  grave  atten 
tion  to  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  to-day ;  but  I 


CONCESSION  AND   COMPROMISE.  89 

• 

have  heard  no  specification  of  these  charges.  Mas 
sachusetts  hesitated,  I  say :  she  has  her  own  opinions 
of  the  government  and  the  Union.  I  know  Massa 
chusetts  ;  I  have  been  into  every  one  of  her  more 
than  three  hundred  towns ;  I  have  seen  and  con 
versed  with  her  men  and  her  women :  and  I  know 
there  is  not  a  man  within  her  borders  who  would 
not  to-day  gladly  lay  down  his  life  for  the  preserva 
tion  of  the  Union. 

Massachusetts  has  made  war  upon  slavery  wher 
ever  she  had  the  right  to  do  it ;  but,  much  as  she 
abhors  the  institution,  she  would  sacrifice  every 
thing  rather  than  assail  it  where  she  has  not  the 
right  to  assail  it. 

Can  it  be  denied,  gentlemen,  that  we  have  elected 
a  President  in  a  legal  and  constitutional  way  ?  It 
cannot  be  denied  ;  and  yet  you  tell  us,  in  tones  that 
cannot  be  misunderstood,  that,  as  a  precedent  con 
dition  of  his  inauguration,  we  must  give  you  these 
guarantees. 

Massachusetts  hesitated,  not  because  her  blood 
was  not  stirred,  but  because  she  insisted  that  the 
government  and  the  inauguration  should  go  on 
in  the  manner  that  would  have  been  observed  had 
Mr.  Lincoln  been  defeated.  She  felt  that  she  was 
touched  in  a  tender  point  when  invited  here  under 
such  circumstances. 

It  is  true,  and  I  confess  it  frankly,  that  there  are 
a  few  men  at  the  North  who  have  not  yielded  that 
support  to  the  grand  idea  upon  which  this  confed 
erated  Union  stands  that  they  should  have  yielded ; 
who  have  been  disposed  to  infringe  upon,  to  attack 
certain  rights  which  the  entire  North,  with  these 


90  CONCESSION  AND   COMPROMISE. 

• 

exceptions,  accords  to  you.  But  are  you  of  the 
South  free  from  the  like  imputations  ?  The  John 
Brown  invasion  was  never  justified  at  the  North. 
If,  in  the  excitement  of  the  time,  there  were  those 
to  be  found  who  did  not  denounce  it  as  gentlemen 
think  they  should,  it  was  because  they  knew  it  was 
a  matter  wholly  outside  the  Constitution,  —  that  it 
was  a  crime  to  which  Virginia  would  give  adequate 
punishment. 

Gentlemen,  I  believe — yes,  I  know — that  the  peo 
ple  of  the  North  are  as  true  to  the  government  and 
the  Union  of  the  States  now  as  our  fathers  were 
when  they  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  upon  the 
field,  fighting  for  the  principles  upon  which  that 
Union  rests.  If  I  thought  the  time  had  come 
when  it  would  be  fit  or  proper  to  consider  amend 
ments  to  the  Constitution  at  all,  I  believe  that  we 
should  have  no  trouble  with  you,  except  upon  this 
question  of  slavery  in  the  Territories.  You  cannot 
demand  of  us  at  the  North  any  thing  that  we  will 
not  grant,  unless  it  involves  a  sacrifice  of  our  prin 
ciples.  These  we  shall  not  sacrifice :  these  you 
must  not  ask  us  to  abandon.  I  believe,  further,  — 
and  I  speak  in  all  frankness,  for  I  wish  to  delude 
no  one,  —  if  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  can 
not  be  preserved  and  effectually  maintained  without 
these  new  guarantees  for  slavery,  that  the  Union 
is  not  worth  preserving. 

The  people  of  the  North  have  always  submitted 
to  the  decisions  of  the  properly  constituted  powers. 
This  obedience  has  been  unpleasant  enough  when 
they  thought  these  powers  were  exercised  for  sec 
tional  purposes ;  but  it  has  always  been  implicitly 


CONCESSION  AND   COMPROMISE.  91 

yielded.  I  am  ready,  even  now,  to  go  home  and 
say,  that,  by  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
slavery  exists  in  all  the  Territories  of  the  United 
States.  We  submit  to  the  decision,  and  accept  its 
consequences.  But,  in  view  of  all  the  circumstances 
attending  that  decision,  was  it  quite  fair,  was  it 
quite  generous,  for  the  gentleman  from  Maryland  to 
say  that  under  it,  by  the  adoption  of  these  proposi 
tions,  the  South  was  giving  up  every  thing,  the 
North  giving  up  nothing?  Does  he  suppose  the 
South  is  yielding  the  point  in  relation  to  any  terri 
tory  which  by  any  probability  would  become  slave 
territory  ?  Something  more  than  the  decision  of 
the  Supreme  Court  is  necessary  to  establish  slavery 
anywhere.  The  decision  may  give  the  right  to  estab 
lish  it :  other  influences  must  control  the  question 
of  its  actual  establishment. 

I  am  opposed,  further,  to  any  restrictions  on  the 
acquisition  of  territory.  They  are  unnecessary. 
The  time  may  come  when  they  would  be  trouble 
some.  We  may  want  the  Canadas.  The  time  may 
come  when  the  Canadas  may  wish  to  unite  with  us. 
Shall  we  tie  up  our  hands  so  that  we  cannot  receive 
them,  or  make  it  for  ever  your  interest  to  oppose 
their  annexation?  Such  a  restriction  would  be, 
by  the  common  consent  of  the  people,  disregarded. 

There  are  seven  States  out  of  the  Union  already. 
They  have  organized  what  they  claim  is  an  inde 
pendent  government.  They  are  not  to  be  coerced 
back,  you  say.  Are  the  prospects  very  favorable 
that  they  will  return  of  their  own  accord  ?  But 
they  will  annex  territory.  They  are  already  looking 
to  Mexico.  If  left  to  themselves,  they  would  annex 


92  CONCESSION  AND   COMPROMISE. 

her  and  all  her  neighbors,  and  we  should  lose  our 
highway  to  the  Pacific  coast.  They  would  acquire 
it,  and  to  us  it  would  be  lost  for  ever. 

The  North  will  consider  well  before  she  consents 
to  this,  before  she  even  permits  it.  Ever  since 
1820,  we  have  pursued,  in  this  respect,  a  uniform 
policy.  The  North  will  hesitate  long,  before,  by  ac 
cepting  the  condition  you  propose,  she  deprives  the 
nation  of  the  valuable  privilege,  the  unquestionable 
right,  of  acquiring  new  territory  in  an  honorable 
way. 

I  have  tried  to  look  upon  these  propositions  of 
the  majority  of  the  committee  as  true  measures 
of  pacification.  I  have  listened  patiently  to  all  that 
has  been  said  in  their  favor.  But  I  am  still  uncon 
vinced,  or,  rather,  I  am  convinced  that  they  will  do 
nothing  for  the  Union.  They  will  prove  totally 
inadequate ;  may  perhaps  be  positively  mischiev 
ous.  The  North,  the  free  States,  will  not  adopt 
them,  —  will  not  consent  to  these  new  endorsements 
of  an  institution  which  they  do  not  like,  which  they 
believe  to  be  injurious  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
republic ;  and  if  they  did  adopt  them,  as  they  could 
only  do  by  a  sacrifice  of  principles  which  you  should 
not  expect,  the  South  would  not  be  satisfied:  the 
slave  States  would  not  fail  to  find  pretexts  for  a 
course  of  action  upon  which  I  think  they  have 
already  determined.  I  see  in  these  propositions  any 
thing  but  true  measures  of  pacification. 

But  the  North  will  never  consent  to  the  separa 
tion  of  the  States.  If  the  South  persists  in  the 
course  on  which  she  has  entered,  we  shall  march 
our  armies  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  or  you  will 


CONCESSION   AND    COMPROMISE.  93 

march  yours  to  the  great  lakes.  There  can  be  no 
peaceful  separation.  There  is  one  way  by  which 
war  may  be  avoided,  and  the  Union  preserved.  It 
is  a  plain  and  a  constitutional  way.  If  the  slave 
States  will  abandon  the  design  which  we  must  infer 
from  the  remarks  of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia 
they  have  already  formed,  will  faithfully  abide  by 
their  constitutional  obligations,  and  remain  in  the 
Union  until  their  rights  are  in  fact  invaded,  all 
will  be  well.  But,  if  they  take  the  responsibility  of 
involving  the  country  in  a  civil  war,  of  breaking  up 
the  government  which  our  fathers  founded  and  our 
people  love,  but  one  course  remains  to  those  who 
are  true  to  that  government.  They  must  and  will 
defend  it  at  every  sacrifice,  —  if  necessary,  to  the 
sacrifice  of  their  lives. 


THE   CONSPIRACY:    ITS   PURPOSES  AND 
ITS  POWER. 

ADDRESS    BEFORE    THE    PHI    BETA    KAPPA    SOCIETY    OF    HARVARD 

UNIVER'SITY,  JULY  is,  isei. 

IN  troublous  times  like  the  present,  men  are 
anxious  about  what  is  doing,  and  take  but  little 
interest  in  what  is  said.  Your  invitation  of  honor 
and  command  contained  a  stipulation  that  I  should 
speak  upon  those  subjects  that  concern  the  welfare 
of  the  country,  engross  the  attention  of  the  Ameri 
can  people,  and  disturb  the  maritime  and  commer 
cial  states  of  Europe.  In  this,  as  well  as  in  all 
things  else  around  us,  is  evidence  of  the  common 
anxiety  and  of  the  existence  of  gloomy  apprehen 
sions  concerning  the  future. 

The  anniversaries  of  this  ancient  and  learned 
society  have  been  thus  far,  as  I  understand,  literary 
festivals ;  and  the  change  indicated  by  the  direc 
tions  which  I  am  to  observe  is  no  slight  evidence  of 
the  eventful  character  of  the  times  through  which 
we  are  passing.  Yet  how  impotent  are  all  words, 
and  surely  such  words  as  mine,  when  every  highway 
resounds  with  the  tread  of  armed  men,  and  twenty 
million  hearts  beat  warmly  in  response  to  the  call 
of  the  country ! 

The  effort  of  a  strong  man  combating  in  the 
presence  of  a  deadly  danger,  or  struggling  in  the  em- 


THE   CONSPIRACY,  ETC.  95 

brace  of  death  itself,  awakens  at  once  our  sympa 
thies,  our  fears,  and  our  hopes ;  but,  for  the  last 
ninety  days,  our  eyes  have  been  fixed  continually 
upon  the  sublime  spectacle  of  a  mighty  nation,  born 
of  the  purest  patriotism  that  the  world  has  ever 
seen  and  nourished  by  the  genial  influences  of  lib 
erty,  struggling  to  escape  from  the  grasp  of  traitors 
and  tyrants.  As  no  other  rebellion  of  which  his 
tory  speaks  was  so  causeless  in  its  origin,  so  none 
was  ever  so  base  in  its  character,  or  dangerous  in 
its  design.  It  is  a  formidable  rebellion.  Foreign 
nations  have  not  over-estimated  it:  the  American 
people  have  not,  I  fear,  comprehended  it.  Nor  let 
us  be  surprised  or  maddened,  that  Europe,  on  the 
moment,  seemed  ready  to  accept  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union  as  an  accomplished  fact.  From  the  4th 
of  March,  183T,  to  the  6th  of  November,  1860, 
there  was  no  successful,  indeed  there  was  no  for 
midable,  resistance  to  the  domination  of  the  now 
seceded  States  in  the  government  of  this  country. 

Wonder  not,  then,  that  the  present  generation  of 
European  statesmen  and  diplomates  impulsively  ac 
cepted  the  will  and  the  purpose  of  the  Southern 
mind  as  the  law  and  the  destiny  of  this  continent. 
Educated  and  systematic  statesmanship  is  usually 
paralyzed  by  a  rebellion ;  and,  in  our  own  experi 
ence,  it  is  observed  that  the  early  struggles  in 
behalf  of  Secession  drove  from  places  of  trust  and 
influence  the  major  part  of  the  statesmen  of  the 
North  in  whom  the  confidence  of  the  country  would 
otherwise  naturally  have  reposed.  Wonder  not, 
then,  that  Europe  lost  faith  in  our  institutions  and 
government,  when  familiar  and  trusted  statesmen 


96  THE   CONSPIRACY:  t 

disappeared  from  the  public  councils.  But  neither 
they  nor  we  knew  the  people  of  America.  A 
quarter  of  a  million  of  men  have  already  answered 
the  call  of  the  President,  and  a  quarter  of  a  million 
more  will  take  the  field  whenever  the  first  authori 
tative  summons  reaches  them.  The  instincts  of 
the  people  are  trustworthy.  This  rebellion  is 
against  them :  its  object  is  the  overthrow  of  their 
government.  "  Not  one  common  soldier  or  com 
mon  sailor,"  says  the  President,  "  is  known  to  have 
deserted  his  flag." 

On  the  24th  of  April  last,  two  officers  of  the  reg 
ular  service,  of  inferior  rank,  but  of  that  modesty 
of  manner  and  nobleness  of  character  which  exact 
universal  respect,  reported  to  General  Wool,  in  New 
York,  that  they  were  in  command  of  eight  hundred 
soldiers  of  the  army  of  Texas,  which  General 
Twiggs  had  then  recently  abandoned,  having  first 
failed  in  his  design  to  carry  it  to  the  camp  of  the 
traitors.  These  eight  hundred  men  were  soon  fol 
lowed  by  fifteen  hundred  of  their  comrades.  Thus 
did  this  army,  deserted  by  its  commander,  deprived 
of  the  means  of  transportation  or  subsistence  or 
defence,  stand  firm  in  its  fidelity  to  the  government 
and  the  Union,  and  await  and  create  an  opportunity 
to  return  to  the  loyal  States.  No  event  in  the  his 
tory  of  this  memorable  rebellion  is  more  worthy  of 
being  transmitted  to  posterity ;  and  I  trust  that  the 
names  of  these  men  will  yet  be  known,  and  their 
faithfulness  rewarded. 

In  disgraceful  contrast  is  the  conduct  of  the  major 
part  of  the  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  from  the 
South.  .  A  small  number  of  honorable  men  have 


ITS   PURPOSES   AND   ITS   POWER.  97 

been  true  to  the  country.  Theirs  are  names  that 
cannot  die.  But  in  what  associations  of  infamy 
will  history  place  the  names  of  Ingraham  and 
Twiggs  and  Maury  and  Lee,  and  all  who,  like  them, 
have  enjoyed  the  favors  and  the  honors  of  the  re 
public,  who  were  its  children  by  a  double  tie,  and 
yet  who  have  for  years  plotted  treason  while  in 
command  of  armies,  in  command  of  squadrons, 
or,  even  worse  than  all,  while  enjoying  the  confi 
dence  of  General  Scott  himself! 

This,  then,  is  not  a  rebellion  of  the  people  against 
tyrants  ;  but,  for  the  first  time  in  the  annals  of  man 
kind,  we  behold  a  rebellion  of  tyrants  against  the 
people,  —  a  rebellion  of  tyrants  against  the  people, 
a  rebellion  of  tyrants  against  humanity,  a  rebellion 
of  tyrants  against  justice,  a  •  rebellion  of  tyrants 
against  law,  a  rebellion  of  tyrants  against  liberty, 
a  rebellion  of  tyrants  against  the  sovereignty  of  the 
American  States,  a  rebellion  of  tyrants  against  the 
integrity  of  the  American  Union,  a  rebellion  of 
tyrants  against  the  hopes  of  the  whole  human  race 
in  the  capacity  of  the  people  to  govern  themselves. 
Tyrants  whose  aims  are  so  hostile  to  mankind  could 
not  be  otherwise  than  false  to  every  sentiment  of 
truth,  justice,  and  honor,  as  well  as  traitors  to  the 
country  whose  fostering  care  they  had  received. 
Being  tyrants  and  traitors,  they  were  prepared  for 
the  meanest  acts  and  the  vilest  crimes.  The  law 
of  their  conscience,  then,  was  not  violated,  when, 
under  the  pressure  of  their  necessities,  they  stole 
the  public  money,  seized  the  public  arsenals,  bom 
barded  a  starving  garrison,  and  laid  sacrilegious 

7 


98  THE   CONSPIRACY: 

hands  upon  a  hospital  filled  with  the  sick,  and  dedi 
cated  to  humanity  and  to  God. 

Nor  is  it  otherwise  than  according  to  a  law  of 
their  nature  that  they  have  thus  far  failed  to  exhibit 
one  chivalrous  trait  of  character,  or  to  perform  one 
heroic  deed.  The  war  has  been,  on  their  part,  that 
of  a  banditti.  Do  you,  on  your  part,  propose  to 
conduct  it  as  though  they  were  brethren  who  had 
yielded  suddenly  to  temptation,  or  gentlemen  who 
are  occasionally  a  little  awry  in  their  manners,  or 
Christians  temporarily  forgetful  of  the  requirements 
of  the  Decalogue  ?  The  apologists  of  these  men  refer 
us  to  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son.  But,  when 
he  went  out,  he  took  only  the  portion  which  fell  to 
him,  and  that  by  the  judgment  of  his  father ;  and, 
though  he  wasted  Ms  substance  in  riotous  living,  he 
made  no  war  upon  the  homestead,  but  returned  in 
contrition  and  humility.  Other  rebellions  have  had 
justifying  causes  or  palliating  circumstances.  This 
has  neither.  High  above  all  others,  and  alone,  it 
stands  distinguished  for  its  criminality.  The  annals 
of  nations  furnish  no  counterpart  to  the  baseness 
of  States,  and  the  treachery  of  individual  men,  which 
have  characterized  all  these  proceedings.  Look  at 
Louisiana.  She  was  purchased  with  a  price :  her 
leading  industry  was  fostered  by  a  tax  upon  the 
commerce  and  the  labor  of  the  whole  country.  She 
has  not  now,  nor  has  she  had  during  her  entire  life 
as  a  Territory  and  a  State  of  the  American  Union, 
an  inhabitant  who  can  with  truth  say  that  the  gov 
ernment  has  done  him  any  wrong,  even  the  least, 
or  failed  to  yield  him  ample  and  speedy  protection 
in  all  his  rights.  Yet  Louisiana  went  out  of  the 


ITS  PURPOSES   AND   ITS   POWEB.  99 

Union  like  a  thief  in  the  night,  regardless  of  the  ties 
of  loyalty  and  of  gratitude  which  should  have  bound 
her  to  a  common  country.  And  now  she  assumes 
to  stand  at  the  gateway  of  nations,  and  essays  to 
control  the  outlet  of  that  valley  where  are  soon  to 
dwell  a  hundred  million  of  people.  If  the  freemen 
of  the  North,  and  especially  of  the  North-west,  con 
sent  to  this  upon  any  terms  or  for  any  period  of 
time,  then  history  will  say  that  slavery  came  to  them 
no  sooner  than  they  deserved  it. 

But  how  are  we  to  speak  of  the  impotent  treach 
ery  of  Florida  ?  —  purchased  as  she  was  as  a  key 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  rendered  possibly  habitable 
for  civilized  man  by  the  expenditure  of  fifty  million 
of  dollars  and  the  sacrifice  of  noble  lives  in  an  in 
glorious  war,  admitted  as  a  State  when  she  had  not 
one-fourth  of  the  productive  power  of  the  ancient 
county  of  Middlesex  ;  and  now,  assuming  upon  her 
position,  for  which  she  is  indebted  to  the  generosity 
of  the  nation,  she  strikes  a  feeble  but  malignant 
blow  at  the  Constitution  and  the  Union. 

Another  outpost  of  the  nation  is  Texas.  We  held 
her  by  the  triple  bond  of  voluntary  annexation, 
conquest,  and  purchase.  With  a  subsidy  of  ten 
million,  we  quieted  a  groundless  claim  that  she 
made  upon  New  Mexico ;  we  allowed  her  property 
in  all  her  immense  public  domain ;  directly  or  indi 
rectly,  we  furnished  means  by  which  she  inaugurated 
a  system  of  public  schools,  a  system  of  internal 
improvements,  and  by  which  her  people  were  re 
lieved  of  the  burdens  of  taxation.  We  kept  upon 
her  frontier  one-fourth  of  the  army  of  the  republic, 
and  sought  to  facilitate  her  commercial  relations 


100  THE  CONSPIRACY: 

with  the  States  of  the  Pacific,  as  well  as  with  those 
of  the  Atlantic.  With  much  hesitation,  and  with 
singular  uncertainty  concerning  her  future,  Texas, 
too,  has  abandoned  the  Union. 

Of  the  old  States,  Georgia  and  North  Carolina 
left  the  Union  with  hesitation  and  reluctance  ;  South 
Carolina,  early  and  defiantly  ;  while  Virginia  treach 
erously  remained  until  she  hoped  by  her  departure 
to  paralyze  the  government,  seize  the  capital,  and 
secure  the  triumph  of  treason.  Of  all  the  States, 
old  and  new,  South  Carolina  had  an  historical 
claim  to  be  disloyal.  She  was  subjugated  out  of 
the  union  with  Great  Britain  by  the  armies  of  the 
North.  She  was  induced  to  adopt  the  Constitution 
by  a  trade  which  was  demoralizing  to  her  people; 
and  her  career  had  been  characterized  by  hatred  and 
contempt  of  the  other  States  of  the  confederacy. 
It  must,  however,  be  admitted  that  her  recent 
movements  have  been  marked  by  an  appearance 
of  respectability  to  which  the  other  seceded  States 
can  lay  no  claim. 

Of  Virginia  higher  hopes  were  entertained.  She 
had  given  great  men  to  the  service  of  the  country, 
and  to  its  history  great  names.  The  Declaration  of 
Independence,  which  asserted  that  "  all  men  are  cre 
ated  equal,"  was  hers  by  a  peculiar  right.  She  had 
a  large  part  in  the  achievement  of  the  national 
freedom ;  the  Constitution  was,  in  an  eminent  de 
gree,  her  work ;  and  no  State  had  shared  with  her 
the  homage  of  the  whole  country.  Statesmen  and 
leadership  seemed  to  be  hers  by  a  divine  right.  In 
February  last,  twenty-one  States  assembled  by  her 
request  to  consider  whether,  and  by  what  means,  the 


ITS  PURPOSES   AND  ITS  P&WEK. 

Union  could  be  preserved.  The  nation  believed  in 
the  sincerity  of  Virginia ;  but  that  summons  was 
made  in  the  interest  of  treason.  Of  her  five  dele 
gates,  three  were  then  traitors,  and  a  fourth  made 
haste  to  be  numbered  among  the  enemies  of  his 
country.  Her  duplicity  and  hypocrisy  may  well  be 
chronicled  in  the  fact,  that  John  Tyler,  President 
of  the  Peace  Congress,  in  his  valedictory  address 
thrice  invoked  the  blessing  of  heaven  upon  the 
Union  and  upon  the  work  of  that  Congress,  though 
he  had  himself  voted  against  the  most  essential  res 
olutions.  He  then  went  to  Richmond,  and  in  forty- 
eight  hours,  even  before  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  or  any  State  could  be  consulted,  denounced 
the  entire  proceedings. 

Mr.  Rives  was  a  professed  Union  man  in  Febru 
ary,  and  an  open  traitor  in  May.  The  treachery  of 
Virginia  was  accompanied  by  a  singular  stupidity ; 
and  to-day  her  territory  is  invested  by  sea  and  land, 
a  hundred  thousand  men  are  marching  over  her 
borders,  and  she  madly  accepts  her  melancholy  doom. 
Bankrupt  in  treasury,  dishonored  in  name,  public 
and  private  resources  exhausted,  her  pride  broken 
if  not  humbled,  she  awaits  the  regenerating  influ 
ences  of  a  truer  civilization.  Her  doom  is  certain 
and  melancholy,  whatever  may  be  the  fortune  of 
the  war.  Missouri  and  Maryland  have  involved 
themselves  in  local  and  civil  strife  ;  and  Kentucky 
seems  destined  to  bring  upon  herself  the  same  dire 
calamity. 

These  leading  facts  in  our  recent  experience  indi 
cate  the  course  of  events  during  the  last  eight 
months.  They  indicate,  moreover,  the  nature  and 


extent  of  the  conspiracy  formed  for  the  overthrow 
of  the  government.  This  conspiracy,  at  the  time 
when  its  machinations  were  first  revealed,  was  sup 
ported  by  the  executive  departments  in  fourteen  or 
fifteen  States,  and  by  the  legislatures  of  an  equal 
number.  It  had  corrupted  most  of  the  officers  of 
the  army  and  navy,  who  by  birth  were  allied  to 
those  States ;  and  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the 
press  was  there  already  crushed.  The  conspiring 
States,  having  first  destroyed  freedom  at  home,  pro 
ceeded  to  overthrow  the  institutions  of  freedom 
throughout  the  country. 

/  I  need  not  here  and  now  detail  the  events  of  those 
dreary  months  of  December,  January,  and  February, 
when  the  country  was  paralyzed  by  corruption  and 
imbecility,  nor  speak  of  the  anxieties  and  forebod 
ings  which  April  brought  when  the  fall  of  Sumter 
was  followed  by  a  wild  crusade  towards  Washing 
ton. 

The  administration  was  divided,  and  members 
of  the  President's  Cabinet  abandoned  the  capital 
and  their  places,  to  identify  themselves  prominently 
with  the  rebellion.  The  capital  of  the  country  was 
in  imminent  danger ;  and  a  regiment  of  our  own 
troops  was  attacked  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  and 
its  members  massacred.  Washington  itself  was 
besieged,  and  for  days  the  country  was  ignorant  of 
the  fate  of  its  capital.  Then  communication  was 
opened  by  a  circuitous  route,  over  which  men  con 
nected  with  the  army,  or  otherwise  in  the  service  of 
the  government,  were  permitted  to  pass.  The  call 
of  the  President  for  seventy-five  thousand  soldiers 
dissipated  all  idea  of  peace  except  through  war. 


ITS  PURPOSES  AND  ITS  POWER.  103 

So  much  of  the  country  as  remained  loyal  responded 
with  alacrity.  But  the  States  of  Delaware,  Mary 
land,  Missouri,  and  Kentucky,  though  nominally  in 
the  Union,  refused  to  comply  with  the  requisition. 
Thus  had  the  conspiracy  acquired  the  control  of 
fifteen  States,  including  six  of  those  that  carried  on 
the  war  for  independence. 

The  loyal  States  have  met  the  issue  thus  forced 
upon  them.  They  will,  we  trust,  maintain  the  cause 
of  the  Union  to  the  end.  Yet  how  great  are  the 
sacrifices- !  Commerce  impeded,  manufactures  para 
lyzed,  and  the  claims  due  from  citizens  of  the  se 
ceded  to  citizens  of  the  loyal  States  at  once  and 
completely  repudiated  and  abandoned.  The  first 
shock  to  credit  and  business,  and  the  positive  losses 
by  repudiation  and  bankruptcy,  have  diminished  the 
resources  of  the  country  to  the  amount  of  five  hun 
dred  million  of  dollars. 

To  this  must  be  added  and  superadded  the  cost 
and  losses  of  the  war  itself.  Of  the  half-million 
of  men  we  are  to  put  into  the  field,  possibly  one- 
tenth  will  never  return  to  their  homes.  Our  annual 
expenditures  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war  will  be 
not  less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  million  of  dol 
lars.  This  expenditure,  however,  is  not  a  positive 
and  complete  loss.  It  furnishes  employment  to 
farmers,  artisans,  and  manufacturers ;  but  the  im 
poverishment  of  the  nation  will  exceed  a  hundred 
and  fifty  million  a  year,  besides  the  loss  of  life  and 
of  the  otherwise  productive  services  of  the  army  in 
the  field.  This  is  a  crude  but  not  an  exaggerated 
estimate  of  the  burdens  we  are  assuming  in  defence 
of  the  Union  and  for  the  restoration  of  the  Consti 
tution. 


104  THE  CONSPIRACY: 

It  would  be  a  fallacy  in  reasoning,  and  a  folly  in 
statesmanship,  if  we  failed  to  make  the  most  search 
ing  inquiries  concerning  the  causes  of  the  private 
and  public  calamities  in  which  we  are  involved.  If 
we  are  too  timid  to  search  for  the  causes,  or,  search 
ing,  are  not  able  to  discover  them,  then  indeed  is 
our  way  dark,  and  the  nation  without  hope.  There 
is,  however,  no  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  re 
mote,  the  ultimate,  cause  of  all  these  difficulties. 
It  is  SLAVERY.  States  North  and  States  South, 
States  loyal  and  States  discontented,  agree  in  this. 
How,  or  in  what  way,  these  evils  have  been  pro 
duced  by  slavery,  men  are  not  agreed.  They  may 
have  been  produced  by  heated  and  hostile  enthusi 
asts,  who  have  attacked  slavery  when  and  where 
they  had  no  right  to  attack  it ;  they  may  have  been 
produced  by  its  supporters,  who  made  claims  in  its 
interest  that  were  repugnant  to  the  principles  of 
the  nation ;  they  may  have  been  produced  because 
too  much  was  yielded  to  slavery,  or  because  too 
much  was  withheld ;  or  they  may  have  been  pro 
duced  because  the  rapid  growth  of  a '  great  nation 
under  a  free  Constitution  is  incompatible  with  a 
system  of  servitude. 

And  as  no  man  whose  opinions  are  sought  at  all 
has  a  right  to  withhold  them  in  an  exigency  like 
this,  however  unimportant  they  may  be  as  aiding 
the  solution  of  great  difficulties,  so  I  express  mine 
with  freedom,  and  as  fully  as  the  occasion  and 
the  time  will  permit.  I  put,  then,  but  little  respon 
sibility  to  the  account  of  individual  men  or  upon 
political  parties.  Something,  no  doubt,  men  and 
parties  have  done  or  failed  to  do,  that,  doing  or 


ITS   PURPOSES   AND   ITS   POWER.  105 

failing,  has  contributed  to  the  disorder  of  the  times. 
We  are  experiencing  the  shock  to  which  the  country 
was  from  the  first  exposed.  Nor  was  the  danger 
hidden.  It  was  seen  by  Washington,  Jefferson, 
Hamilton,  Madison ;  it  was  feared  by  the  leading 
statesmen  of  the  intermediate  generation.  That 
they  warned  the  country  against  the  danger  is  not 
evidence  that  the  danger  itself  might  have  been 
avoided.  They  spoke  of  the  magnitude  of  the  peril, 
and  gave  utterance  to  their  fears  as  well  as  to  their 
faith  and  hopes. 

Slavery  existing  in  one-half  of  the  States  of  the 
Union  was  necessarily,  within  those  States,  a  sub' 
ject  of  individual,  domestic,  and  public  concern. 
Hence  its  support  became  a  matter  of  political  im 
portance.  Slavery  was  the  great  interest  of  those 
States ;  and  hence  there  arose  a  policy  looking  to  its 
security  and  advancement.  For  these  purposes  the 
State  governments  could  do  but  little,  and  the  na 
tional  government  could  do  much.  Hence  there 
came  to  be  in  the  slave  States  a  fixed  and  general 
opinion  that  the  national  government  should  be  ad 
ministered  for  the  protection  and  extension  of  the 
system  of  slavery.  Hence  the  exigencies  of  the  slave 
States  were  never  met  by  the  admission  or  the  as 
sertion  of  the  right  of  each  State  to  settle  the 
question  of  slavery  for  itself;  nor  by  the  conces 
sion  that  a  Territory  had  the  right  to  do  the  same 
thing ;  nor  by  the  execution  of  the  Fugitive-slave 
Law  as  faithfully  as  other  national  laws  are  ex 
ecuted  ;  nor  by  the  declaration  of  political  parties 
and  of  Congress  that  there  was  no  power  under 
the  Constitution,  and  no  purpose  among  the  people 


106  THE  CONSPIRACY: 

of  the  free  States,  to  interfere  with  slavery  where 
it  exists. 

But  none  can  deny  that  freedom  is  aggressive ; 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  has  been  the  pur 
pose  of  the  people  of  the  free  States,  with  singular 
unanimity  and  without  regard  to  party,  to  admin 
ister  the  government  in  the  interest  of  freedom,  but 
yet  according  to  the  Constitution.  It  is  a  fact  well 
worthy  of  observation,  that  no  theory  of  the  Con 
stitution,  or  of  the  rights  and  duties  of  individuals 
or  States  under  it,  adopted  by  any  political  party  in 
the  North,  has  ever  been  accepted  by  those  who  now 
lead  the  rebellion.  From  Mr.  Calhoun  to  John 
Tyler,  they  have  uniformly  repudiated_tl^&-.  Constitu 
tion,  aa  msumcienFfor^Lajijej^jiid  the  slave^  States. 

The  amendments  demanded  by  Mr.  Calhoun  in 
his  speeches  and  essays,  and  by  John  Tyler  in  his 
resolutions  offered  in  the  Peace  Congress,  proposed 
such  alterations  in  the  Constitution  as  would  have 
rendered  the  government  inoperative,  unless  it  acted 
under  the  control  of  the  slave  States.  Does  any 
one  say  that  he  thought  or  believed  that  we  have  a 
Constitution  which  is  neither  for  freedom  nor  for  sla 
very  ?  Is  there  a  human  mind  that  is  not  for  freedom 
or  slavery?  a  human  heart  that  is  not  for  free 
dom  or  slavery  ?  a  pulsation  that  is  not  of  life  or  of 
death  ?  So  there  is  no  Constitution  that  is  not  for 
freedom  or  slavery,  no  people  that  is  not  for  free 
dom  or  slavery,  no  nation  that  is  not  for  freedom 
or  slavery.  And  hence  our  Constitution,  being  for 
freedom,  (with  gratitude  to  our  fathers  and  to  God 
be  it  ever  spoken  and  for  ever  remembered  !)  —  our 
Constitution,  being  for  fi^edom^js^epudiated  by 


ITS  PURPOSES   AND  ITS  POWER.  107 

those  who  seek  to  establish  a  government  which 
shall  be  for  slavery  and  against  freedom. 

In  February  last,  I  met  for  the  first  time  Mr. 
Seddons,  of  Virginia.  Said  he,  with  great  frank 
ness  and  without  delay,  "  There  is  no  reason  why 
we  should  attempt  to  deceive  each  other.  This 
contest  is  for  the  government  of  the  country, — 
whether  it  shall  be  governed  by  the  South  in  the 
interest  of  slavery,  or  by  the  North  in  the  interest 
of  what  you  call  freedom."  "  And  further,"  said 
he,  "  we  are  not  disturbed  by  what  you  have  done, 
but  we  are  alarmed  at  what  we  apprehend.  You 
are  drawing  a  line  around  us,  either  by  positive  law 
or  by  immigration.  You  say  we  shall  not  go  with 
our  slaves  over  that  line.  No  matter  where  the  line 
is,  near  or  remote ;  the  time  will  come  when  we 
must  pass  over  it.  We  are  now  eight  million,  and 
our  slaves  are  four.  Somebody  must  leave.  You 
say  the  slaves^all-^tot-r^hcii  tiio~iaasters_must,  and 
our  country  iajnvgnjrip  tojjiejiegro  race." 

ThlsTs  the  view  of  a  philosophical,  transcendental 
secessionist.  I  do  not  stop  now  to  refute  it.  It  is 
substantially  an  assertion  that  the  country  must 
be  governed  in  the  interest  of  slavery,  and  that 
freedom  should  be  restrained  within  certain  limits 
by  positive  law.  On  this  foundation  the  conspiracy 
and  the  rebellion  are  to  establish  a  government  of 
which  human  slavery  is  to  be  the  corner-stone ; 
whose  lines  shall  extend,  like  the  parallels  of  lati 
tude,  across  the  American  continent,  from  sea  to 
sea ;  and  over  which  neither  freemen  nor  freedom, 
nor  the  institutions  of  freedom,  can  ever  pass. 

We  thus  the  better  comprehend  the  magnitude 


108  THE  CONSPIRACY: 

of  the  contest  in  which  we  are  involved,  as  we  per 
ceive  more  fully  the  value  of  the  stake  to  be  lost  or 
won  by  those  who  have  inaugurated  the  war. 

We  have  seen  Europe  a  good  deal  disturbed  by 
the  transfer  ?>f  the  comparatively  unimportant  prov 
inces  of  Nice  and  Savoy  from  Sardinia  to  France. 
Any  question  of  territory  upon  that  continent  now 
excites  the  gravest  apprehensions.  These  appre 
hensions  are  due  to  the  ambitions  and  rivalries 
among  states  corresponding  to  each  other  in  terri 
tory  and  power.  The  extent  of  our  territory  on 
this  continent  has  saved  us  from  similar  anxieties  ; 
but  the  division  of  the  country,  as  contemplated  by 
the  rebels,  involves  a  sacrifice  so  great  that  peace 
ought  not  to  be  welcomed,  if  accompanied  with  any 
limitation  of  our  boundaries,  even  though  the  war 
last  'through  the  century.  I  share  your  surprise, 
that,  by  suggestion  or  statement,  I  should  admit 
the  possibility  of  a  division  of  the  territory  of 
the  republic  under  any  circumstances  whatever. 
Yet  we  all  know  that  this  war  means  separation,  or 
it  means  nothing. 

And  I  foresee  that  when  you  have  prosecuted  it 
for  a  time,  I  know  not  how  long,  with  such  varied 
success  as  you  may,  there  will  appear  men  who  will 
advocate  a  division  of  the  country  for  the  sake  of 
peace.  Our  hope  is  that  the  machinations  of  all 
such  will  fail,  and  that  the  war  will  be  brought  to  a 
speedy  and  triumphant  end.  But  it  is  not  the  part 
of  common  prudence,  to  say  nothing  of  wisdom,  to 
omit  recognizing  the  fact  that  eleven  States  are  in 
open  and  systematic  rebellion ;  that  two  others  are 
avowedly  hostile ;  that  two  others  have  not  taken  a 


ITS   PURPOSES   AND   ITS   POWER.  109 

position  upon  the  question ;  and  that  nearly  all  the 
men  in  that  vast  section,  accustomed  to  participate 
in  public  affairs,  are  involved  in  the  conspiracy  be 
yond  all  hope  of  escape,  except  by  the  accomplish 
ment  of  their  design. 

It  is  safe,  also,  to  assume,  further,  that  the  govern 
ing  class  of  the  South,  including  the  slaveholders, 
though  constituting,  it  may  be,  only  a  minority  of  the 
people,  are  animated  by  the  bitterest  hostility  to  the 
Union,  and  to  the  citizens  of  the  free  States.  Seces 
sion  is  — 

"  A  gulf  profound  as  that  Serbonian  bog, 
Betwixt  Damiata  and  Mount  Casius  old, 
"Where  armies  whole  have  sunk." 

The  Southern  masses  will  soon  learn  that  they 
have  been  deceived  in  regard  to  the  courage  and 
capacity  of  the  people  of  the  North.  I  trust  that 
we  shall  not,  in  like  particulars,  underrate  them. 
In  1774,  Mr.  Burke,  in  his  speech  on  conciliation 
with  America,  gave  a  sketch  of  Southern  character  ; 
and,  though  his  opinion  of  the  invincibility  of 
Southern  men  was  not  confirmed  by  what  happened 
afterwards,  his  views  are  not  destitute  of  interest  at 
this  time. 

He  was  at  the  moment  chiefly  desirous  of  refut 
ing  the  argument  drawn  in  favor  of  the  English 
interest  in  the  South  from  the  fact  that  the  Church 
of  England  formed  a  large  body  in  that  region. 
"  There  is,  however,"  said  he,  "  a  circumstance  at 
tending  these  colonies,  which,  in  my  opinion,  fully 
counterbalances  this  difference,  and  makes  the  spirit 
of  liberty  still  more  high  and  haughty  than  in  those 
to  the  northward.  It  is  that,  in  Virginia  and  the 


110  THE  CONSPIRACY: 

Carolinas,  they  have  a  vast  multitude  of  slaves. 
When  this  is  the  case  in  any  part  of  the  world,  those 
who  are  free  are  by  far  the  most  proud  and  jealous 
of  their  freedom.  Freedom  is  to  them,  not  only 
an  enjoyment,  but  a  kind  of  rank  and  privilege. 
Not  seeing,  then,  that  freedom,  as  in  countries 
where  it  is  a  common  blessing  and  as  broad  and 
general  as  the  air,  may  be  united  with  much  abject 
toil,  with  great  misery,  with  all  the  exterior  of 
servitude,  liberty  looks  among  them  like  something 
that  is  more  noble  and  liberal.  I  do  not  mean,  sir, 
to  commend  the  superior  morality  of  this  sentiment, 
which  has  at  least  as  much  pride  as  virtue  in  it ; 
but  I  cannot  alter  the  nature  of  man.  The  fact  is 
so ;  and  these  people  of  the  Southern  colonies  are 
much  more  strongly,  and  with  a  higher  and  more 
stubborn  spirit,  attached  to  liberty  than  those  to  the 
northward.  Such  were  all  the  ancient  common 
wealths  ;  such  were  our  Gothic  ancestors ;  such 
in  our  day  were  the  Poles ;  and  such  will  be  all 
masters  of  slaves  who  are  not  slaves  themselves. 
In  such  a  people,  the  haughtiness  of  domination 
combines  with  the  spirit  of  freedom,  fortifies  it,  and 
renders  it  invincible." 

This  description  of  slaveholders  as  a  class  is  not 
strictly  accurate ;  but  we  are  dealing  with  men  who 
boast  some  of  the  qualities  named,  if  they  do  not 
actually  possess  them.  As  American  slavery  is  the 
worst  slavery  of  modern  times,  I  cannot  doubt  that 
its  effects  upon  the  masters  have  been  proportionately 
pernicious.  With  these  qualifications,  I  am  willing 
that  Mr.  Burke's  description  shall  stand.  We  are 
dealing  with  men  who  are  proud,  haughty,  and  vin- 


ITS  PURPOSES  AND  ITS  POWER.  Ill 

dictive ;  who  believe  that  liberty  is  a  privilege,  not 
a  right :  and,  consequently,  they  are  hostile  to  the 
American  Constitution  and  Union,  because  it  is 
the  theory  of  our  government,  that  liberty  is  a  right, 
and  not  a  privilege. 

These  remarks  apply  to  slaveholders  as  a  class, 
and  not  to  the  entire  population  of  the  South.  We 
are  also  dealing  with  men  and  communities  that  are 
animated  and  controlled  by  personal  and  local  am 
bitions  which  are  natural,  and  from  which  none  of 
us  are  entirely  free.  Some  have  personal  ambition 
to  gratify ;  some  have  wrongs  to  avenge ;  while  Bal 
timore  and  New  Orleans  are  indulging  the  delusion, 
that,  under  a  new  government,  they  would  advance 
to  the  position  now  occupied  by  New  York ;  and 
Memphis  destroys  herself  in  the  vain  attempt  to 
equal  Cincinnati.  I  am  not  ignorant  of  the  exist 
ence  of  a  public  opinion  that  regards  the  view  I 
am  taking  as  altogether  too  serious,  as  well  in  ref 
erence  to  the  causes  of  the  rebellion  as  to  the  char 
acter  and  purposes  of  the  men  engaged  in  it. 

It  seems  to  be  very  generally  believed  that  there 
is  no  danger  of  a  severe  contest,  and  that  the  exhi 
bition  of  power  by  the  national  government  will  be 
followed  by  a  retreat  of  the  rebel  armies  and  a  re 
turn  of  the  seceded  States  to  their  allegiance. 
Nothing  could  be  more  welcome  to  us  than  the 
acceptance  of  the  Constitution  by  the  rebellious 
States.  But  I  have  no  hope  that  this  will  be  accom 
plished  immediately.  I  assume,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  the  war  will  be  conducted  with  what  vigor  the 
rebels  may  command  upon  the  land  and  upon  the 
sea,  and  that  in  all  military  movements  we  shall  be 


112  THE  CONSPIRACY: 

ultimately  successful.  The  prosecution  of  the  war 
will  demand  and  develop  a  policy  on  our  part. 
What  is  this  policy  likely  to  be  ?  or,  rather,  what 
is  it  wise  and  proper  for  the  national  government 
to  do? 

For  the  present,  undoubtedly,  the  prosecution  of 
the  war  is  the  chief  concern  ;  and  I  am  not  without 
the  hope  that  success  on  our  part  will  be  followed 
by  a  revolution  of  public  opinion  in  the  seceded 
States,  so  signal  and  so  universal  that  nothing 
further  will  remain  to  be  done,  except  to  exclude 
from  public  employment  and  to  banish  from  the 
country  all  who  have  taken  a  leading  part  in  this 
great  rebellion.  But  if  your  victories  are  not  fol 
lowed  by  a  revolution  in  public  opinion,  if  your 
authority  is  not  re-established  in  the  seceded  States 
by  the  consent  thereto  of  a  majority  of  the  people, 
if  they  still  regard  themselves  as  aliens  and  beyond 
your  legitimate  jurisdiction,  what,  then,  is  to  be 
done? 

Some  will  say,  consummate  secession  by  permit 
ting  and  agreeing  to  a  partition  of  the  territory  of 
the  republic.  But  this  suggestion  affords  no  relief. 
Separation  is  the  end  of  the  Union  and  the  overthrow 
of  the  Constitution,  and,  of  course,  the  abandon 
ment  of  those  objects  of  sacred  historical  interest 
for  whose  preservation  the  war  is  now  prosecu 
ted.  Reject,  then,  this  suggestion  you  must ;  and 
one  great  good  still  remains  which  ought  never  to 
be  abandoned,  —  the  integrity  of  our  territory.  If 
the  Union  must  end,  if  the  Constitution  must  fall, 
let  us  still  abide  in  the  shelter  of  the  grand  histori 
cal  idea  that  the  great  central  portion  of  the  North- 


ITS   PURPOSES   AND   ITS   POWER.  113 

American  continent  is  always  and  ever  to  be  the 
abode,  the  country,  of  one  people. 

The  settlers  at  Jamestown  and  Plymouth  did  not 
merely  found  towns  or  counties  or  colonies,  or 
States  even :  they  also  founded  a  great  nation,  and 
upon  the  idea  of  its  unity.  Their  colonial  charters 
extended  from  sea  to  sea.  .Their  origin,  their  lan 
guage,  their  laws,  their  civilization,  their  ideas,  and 
now  their  history,  constitute  us  one  nation.  In  the 
geological  structure  of  this  continent,  Nature  seems 
to  have  prepared  it  for  the  occupation  of  a  single 
people.  I  cannot  doubt,  then,  that  continental 
unity  is  the  great,  the  supreme,  law  of  our  public 
life. 

A  division  such  as  is  sought  and  demanded  by 
those  who  carry  on  this  war  would  do  violence  to 
our  traditions,  to  our  history,  to  those  ideas  that 
our  people,  South  and  North,  have  entertained 
for  more  than  two  centuries,  and  to  the  laws 
of  Nature  herself.  An  agreement  such  as  is  de 
sired  by  the  discontented  would  only  intensify  our 
alienations,  embitter  the  strife,  and  protract  the  war 
upon  subordinate  and  insignificant  issues.  Separa 
tion  does  not  settle  one  difficulty  at  present  existing 
in  the  country ;  while  it  furnishes  occasion,  and 
necessity  even,  for  other  controversies  and  wars,  as 
long  as  the  line  of  division  remains. 

Nor  can  we  doubt,  that  when,  by  division,  you 
abandon  the  Union,  acknowledge  the  Constitution 
to  be  a  failure,  the  contest  would  be  carried  on  re 
gardless  of  State  sovereignty,  and  finally  end  in  the 
subjugation  of  all  to  one  idea  and  one  system  in 
government.  Whatever  may  stand  or  fall,  what- 

8 


114  THE  CONSPIEACT: 

ever  may  survive  or  perish,  the  region  between  the 
Atlantic  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  between  the  great 
lakes  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  is  destined  to  be  and 
continue  under  one  form  of  government. 

And  now  again  I  ask,  if  your  victories  are  not 
followed  by  a  revolution  in  public  opinion,  if  your 
authority  is  not  re-established  in  the  seceded  States 
by  the  assent  thereto  of  a  majority  of  the  people, 
if  they  still  regard  themselves  as  aliens  and  beyond 
your  legitimate  jurisdiction,  what  then  is  to  be 
done  ?  In  the  opinion  of  many,  it  may  be  wise  to 
re-organize  the  State  governments,  as  we  are  now 
doing  in  Virginia,  by  the  election  of  men  who  are 
friends  to  the  Union  and  the  Constitution.  The 
movement  in  Virginia  answers  a  salutary  purpose 
for  the  moment;  and,  if  the  war  is  followed  by  a 
change  in  public  sentiment,  the  organization  will 
become  a  legitimate  government,  deriving  its  powers 
from  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

But  if  you  assume  that  Virginia  is  hostile  to  the 
Union,  and  if  she  shall  remain  so  after  battles  and 
victories  won  by  the  army  of  the  republic,  what 
then  is  to  be  the  fate  of  the  new  government  ?  If 
you  abandon  it,  the  men  who  ruled  at  Richmond 
will  come  to  Wheeling,  take  possession  of  the  gov 
ernment  by  the  authority  of  the  people,  restore  it 
to  Richmond,  and  there  be  ready  to  aid  again  in 
embarrassing  or  overthrowing  the  national  adminisj 
tration. 

If,  otherwise,  you  maintain  this  government  by 
force,  then  the  sovereignty  of  the  State  is  annulled, 
and  the  rule  is  no  longer  that  of  a  majority.  While, 
then,  the  organization  of  loyal  governments  by  the 


ITS   PURPOSES   AND   ITS   POWER.  115 

loyal  people  of  the  rebellious  States  is  a  measure 
eminently  wise,  as  affording  an  opportunity  for  wrest 
ing  local  authority  from  the  hands  of  the  rebels, 
we  cannot  look  to  it  as  a  permanent  means  of  main 
taining  the  Union  in  name,  if,  unhappily,  our  mili 
tary  successes  should  not  be  followed  by  a  re-action 
in  public  sentiment. 

It  would  of  necessity  happen,  in  connection  with 
the  organization  of  loyal  State  governments,  that 
the  national  troops  would  hold,  for  naval  and  com 
mercial  purposes,  the  principal  cities  and  forts,  as 
Baltimore,  Richmond,  Norfolk,  Charleston,  Mobile, 
New  Orleans,  Memphis,  and  Galveston;  but  the 
holding  of  these  places,  however  valuable  in  a  mili 
tary  and  commercial  aspect,  is  not  the  restoration 
of  the  Union,  which  exists  by  consent  and  not  by 
force.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  possession 
of  the  central  points  named  would  have  a  salutary 
influence  through  all  the  South,  and,  in  so  far  as 
fraternal  feelings  were  promoted,  would  tend  to  the 
restoration  of  the  Union ;  yet  we  ought  not  to  for 
get  that  the  measure  is  one  of  war,  and  not  the 
legitimate  action  of  our  republican  system  in  time 
of  peace. 

Again  I  ask,  for  the  purpose  of  leaving  with  you 
such  thoughts  as  the  times  force  upon  an  unwilling 
mind,  if  your  victories  are  not  followed  by  a  revo 
lution  in  public  opinion,  if  your  authority  is  not 
re-established  in  the  seceded  States  by  the  assent 
thereto  of  a  majority  of  the  people,  if  they  still 
regard  themselves  as  aliens  and  beyond  your  legiti 
mate  jurisdiction,  what  then  is  to  be  done?  This 
is,  indeed,  to  my  mind,  the  most  embarrassing  ques- 


116  THE  CONSPIRACY: 

tion  of  all,  far  exceeding  in  difficulty,  and  out 
weighing  in  importance,  those  military  problems  on 
which  public  attention  is  now  exclusively  fixed. 
These  I  have  not  attempted  to  consider;  for,  with 
the  great  majority  of  my  countrymen,  and  with 
faith  and  confidence  unshaken,  I  trust  the  conduct 
of  the  war  to  the  foremost  military  chieftain  of  the 
age.  The  political  difficulties  remain ;  and  event 
ually  the  country  will  be  compelled  to  consider 
them. 

One  political  difficulty  is  the  insecurity  of  the 
national  capital.  Successes  in  Virginia,  the  siege 
of  Richmond  and  its  capture,  do  not  overcome  this 
difficulty.  Will  you  remove  the  capital?  You 
ought  not;  you  will  not.  It  is  a  part  of  the  nation. 
Washington  is  the  capital  of  the  republic ;  it  is  in 
corporated  into  our  history;  it  is  interwoven  with 
our  traditions.  If  you  remove  the  capital  from  the 
Potomac,  and  especially  if  you  do  this  from  a  feeling 
of  incertitude  concerning  its  safety,  then  your  action 
is  more  prejudicial  to  the  Union  than  was  the  seces 
sion  of  all  the  States  that  rest  upon  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  Will  you  make  the  capital  secure  where 
it  is?  How?  Shall  it  be  by  the  presence  of  a 
standing  army  ?  Is  the  country  willing  to  strengthen 
the  hands  of  the  executive,  and  thus  peril  the  lib 
erties  of  the  nation  and  the  hopes  of  mankind? 
If  we  are  to  be  and  continue  a  nation,  we  must  have 
a  capital.  That  capital  must  be  secure;  it  must 
be  secure  in  peace  and  freedom,  and  not  merely 
safe  under  the  protecting  power  of  the  bayonet. 

The  war  must  demonstrate  to  the  rebels,  to  the 
country,  and  to  the  world,  not  only  that  the  objects 


ITS  PUEPOSES  AND  ITS  POWER.  117 

for  which  it  was  undertaken  cannot  now  be  accom 
plished,  but  that  all  these  grand  schemes  of  treason 
and  disunion  must  be  abandoned.  Success  on  our 
part  in  battle  does  not  demonstrate  this.  We  leave 
the  States  the  same,  the  institutions  the  same,  the 
people  the  same,  chastened  to  some  extent,  but  ren 
dered  vindictive  also  by  defeat,  as  well  as  taught 
by  experience  to  pursue  a  career  in  the  future 
similar  to  that  which  they  have  pursued  in  the  past. 
Is  it  hoped  that  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  this  re 
bellion  can  be  controlled  by  the  punishment  of  the 
leaders  ?  Justice  demands  that  heavy  penalties  be 
visited  upon  these  men.  I  trust  that  the  demands 
of  justice  will  be  met;  but  was  ever  a  country 
pacified,  or  a  numerous  people  intimidated,  by  such 
means  ?  If  you  leave  to  treason  the  same  sphere 
of  action ;  the  same  motives  for  action ;  hopes 
strengthened,  rather  than  weakened,  by  the  belief, 
universal  under  the  circumstances,  that  former 
errors  might  be  avoided,  —  then  you  reserve  for  the 
country  and  the  next  generation  a  repetition  of  our 
own  experience. 

The  overthrow  of  nullification  seemed,  for  the 
moment,  disastrous  enough  to  the  leaders  :  yet 
Mr.  Calhoun,  the  apostle  of  the  heresy,  came  after 
wards  into  the  Senate,  was  promoted,  by  the  con 
sent  of  that  body  and  of  the  country,  to  the  chief 
seat  in  the  Cabinet  of  President  Tyler,  promulgated 
his  pernicious  opinions  in  State  papers,  corrupted 
the  mind  of  the  South  concerning  the  true  theory  of 
our  government,  and,  more  than  any  other  man,  con 
tributed  to  the  disasters  which  have  befallen  the  re 
public.  Did  any  man  doubt  about  Mr.  Calhoun's 


118  THE  CONSPIRACY: 

opinions, — that  they  were  hostile  to  the  Union? 
And,  after  this  experience,  is  it  reasonable  to  expect 
that  all  the  leaders  even  of  the  rebellion  are  to  be 
excluded  from  public  employments  ?  But,  if  this 
were  possible,  there  will  not  be  wanting  those  who, 
nurtured  under  similar  influences  and  entertaining 
similar  opinions,  will  organize  a  new  rebellion,  which, 
in  another  generation,  will  menace  the  existence  of 
the  country. 

I  come  now  to  a  proposition  which  has,  as  I  be 
lieve,  the  general  support  of  history  and  experience. 
Whenever  a  rebellion  is  based  upon  a  dissimilarity 
of  institutions,  the  rebellion  is  finally  to  be  con 
trolled  only  by  a  modification  of  the  institutions 
themselves.  To  the  substance  of  this  proposition 
I  think  the  country  must  ultimately  come.  If,  in 
the  prosecution  of  the  war,  there  is  developed  a 
strong  Union  sentiment,  I  should  much  prefer  to 
rest  upon  that  than  upon  any  policy  of  our  own. 
But,  in  the  exigency  that  I  anticipate,  we  shall  be 
obliged  to  address  ourselves  to  the  question  of 
slavery,  so  far,  at  least,  as  to  render  the  national 
capital  secure,  and  to  demonstrate  to  the  slave 
holders,  by  a  loss  of  power  on  their  part,  that 
slavery  cannot  control  the  government;  that  its 
positive  and  relative  force,  which  can  be  applied  to 
the  work  of  dissolution,  is  less  than  ever ;  and  that 
a  renewal  of  the  contest  is  likely  to  be  followed  by 
a  further  loss  of  power  and  consideration  in  the 
country. 

By  the  Constitution,  authority  is  given  to  Congress 
"to  suppress  insurrections."  It  does  not  follow 
that  military  force  is  the  only  means  by  which 


ITS  PURPOSES  AND  ITS  POWER.  119 

insurrections  are  to  be  suppressed ;  indeed,  we  might 
well  infer  that  other  means  are  to  be  resorted  to 
when  practicable.  If  Congress  finds  Maryland  and 
Virginia  in  a  state  of  insurrection,  and  especially 
if  the  insurrection  is  carried  on  by  the  govern 
ments,  as  in  Virginia  now,  such  means  must  be 
used  as,  in  the  judgment  of  Congress,  are  adequate 
to  secure  a  permanent  peace.  Nor  can  Virginia 
say,  that,  by  the  Constitution,  the  question  of  sla 
very  is  reserved  to  the  States  themselves.  It  is  true 
of  the  Constitution;  but  the  difficulty  is  that  the 
people  of  Virginia  have  repudiated  that  instrument, 
made  open  and  treasonable  war,  and  hence  it  is 
our  province  to  decide  whether  or  not  we  will  deal 
with  them  as  though  they  were  true  citizens  of  a 
loyal  State. 

Having  rejected  the  Constitution,  they  render  in 
evitable  the  arbitrament  of  war.  If,  by  the  fortunes 
of  war,  the  national  troops  occupy  and  possess  Vir 
ginia,  and  this  occupation  is  not  followed  by  evi 
dence  of  returning  loyalty  on  the  part  of  her  people, 
Congress  must  consider  whether  any  means  exist 
for  the  suppression  of  treason,  for  the  suppression 
of  the  insurrection.  Or  are  we  to  admit  that  the 
power  of  the  government  to  suppress  the  insurrec 
tion  is  exhausted  when  the  territory  of  the  rebels 
is  occupied  by  a  military  force  ? 

The  idea  of  the  rebels,  high  and  low,  seems  to  be 
that  the  national  government  is  solemnly  bound  to 
secure  to  them  all  the  rights  and  privileges  guar 
anteed  by  the  Constitution,  while  they  make  war 
upon  the  Constitution,  the  Union,  and  the  right  of 
the  nation  to  exist.  And  I  know  not  but  that  there 


120  THE  CONSPIRACY: 

are  some  among  us  who  believe  that  this  war,  with 
its  vast  expenditures  and  gigantic  appliances,  is  to 
be  carried  on  for  months,  or  even  years,  for  the 
twofold  but  inconsistent  purpose  of  protecting  the 
government  against  rebel  slaveholders,  and  of  pro 
tecting  the  rebel  slaveholders  against  rebel  slaves. 

If  your  victories  are  not  followed  by  a  revolution 
in  public  opinion,  if  your  authority  is  not  re-estab 
lished  in  the  seceded  States  by  the  assent  thereto 
of  a  majority  of  the  people,  if  they  still  regard 
themselves  as  aliens  and  beyond  your  legitimate 
jurisdiction,  then,  inasmuch  as  the  enjoyment  of 
the  right  of  the  nation  to  exist  is  the  supreme 
necessity  of  all,  as  the  safety  of  the  capital  is  essen 
tial  to  the  enjoyment  of  that  right,  as  the  presence 
of  slavery  in  Maryland  and  Virginia  is  inconsistent 
with  the  safety  of  the  capital,  no  alternative  remains 
but  to  provide  for  the  extinction  of  slavery  in  those 
States  at  such  times  and  upon  such  conditions, 
always  including  compensation  to  the  masters  who 
are  not  under  the  ban  of  the  law  of  treason,  as  may 
be  compatible  with  the  welfare  of  the  States  them 
selves  and  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 

By  so  doing,  we  wrong  no  man  in  his  right  of 
property,  we  give  safety  to  the  capital  of  the  nation, 
we  demonstrate  to  the  South  that  slavery  no  longer 
has  power  to  rule  or  to  ruin  the  country,  and  we 
thereby  take  most  ample  security  for  the  future 
peace  of  the  republic. 

I  am  aware  that  the  prosecution  of  the  war  will 
develop  a  policy.  Necessity  is  a  stern  master ;  and 
our  exigencies  are  likely  to  be  such  that  we  shall 
yield  private  opinion  to  the  public  good.  Let  us  all 


ITS  PURPOSES  AND  ITS  POWER.  121 

remember,  as  a  bond  of  union  between  us,  that 
the  struggle  in  which  we  are  engaged  is  for  the 
existence  of  the  government,  and  does  not  relate 
to  questions  of  administration. 

Our  strength  is  in  the  justice  of  our  cause,  and 
in  the  fact  that  the  interests  of  all  sections 
are  concerned  in  the  preservation  of  the  Union. 
Whether  reason  will  be  consulted  by  the  Southern 
leaders  we  cannot  foresee.  Our  course  is  plain. 
There  must  be  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war, 
the  restoration  of  all  public  property,  the  possession 
of  the  Mississippi  River  and  of  the  principal  com 
mercial  points  on  the  seaboard.  Moreover,  the 
loyal  citizens  of  the  several  States  are  entitled  to, 
and  must  receive,  the  protection  of  the  national 
government.  The  war  on  the  part  of  the  rebels 
is  for  the  doctrine  that  the  nation  has  no  right  to 
exist,  if  a  single  State,  at  any  time  or  for  any  pur 
pose,  withholds  its  assent. 

The  war  on  their  part  is  against  all  government, 
—  that  which  they  have  attempted  to  set  up,  as  well 
as  against  that  which  they  inherited  from  Washing 
ton  and  Jefferson. 

We  maintain  the  right  of  the  nation  to  exist,  not] 
in  the  favor  of  any  State,  small  or  great,  Florida/ 
or  New  York,  but  by  the  will  of  the  people  of  the  I 
whole  country,  acting  in  the  light  of  our  traditions  ^ 
and  history,  and  in  obedience  to  our  necessities.    / 
The  nation,  the  Union  indeed,  existed  long  before 
the    Constitution   was   formed.      The   Constitution  ' 
itself  was   framed   to  form   a  more  perfect  Union.  \ 
This   is   a  war   for  national   existence. 

It  is  now  nearly  two  centuries  since  the  weak 


122  THE  CONSPIRACY,  ETC. 

colonies  that  then  clustered  around  Plymouth  Rock, 
menaced  in  their  right  to  exist,  carried  on  a  war 
against  King  Philip,  who,  for  his  courage  and  com 
prehensive  policy,  well  deserved  the  name  of  the 
great  ruler  of  Macedon.  In  that  contest,  every 
tenth  house  in  Massachusetts  was  burned,  and 
every  thirtieth  person  was  slain  or  carried  into 
captivity. 

Philip  captured  all  our  remote  garrisons,  and  de 
stroyed  our  towns  on  a  line  within  twenty  miles  of 
the  sea-coast.  Our  ancestors  never  once  thought 
of  peace  or  negotiations  while  an  enemy  remained 
within  their  borders. 

So  let  their  example  bind  us  to  the  duty  of  main 
taining  the  right  of  this  nation  to  exist;  to  the 
duty  of  maintaining  the  Constitution  as  the  supreme 
law  of  the  land.  But  let  us  with  joy  and  thanks 
giving  welcome  the  return  of  men  and  States  to 
their  allegiance,  justly  due  to  a  government  that, 
for  three-fourths  of  a  century,  has  protected  all  and 
injured  none. 


123 


EMANCIPATION:  ITS  JUSTICE,  EXPEDIEN 
CY,  AND  NECESSITY,  AS  THE  MEANS  OF 
SECURING  A  SPEEDY  AND  PERMANENT 
PEACE. 

AN    ADDRESS   DELIVERED    IN    TREMONT    TEMPLE,    BOSTON,    UNDER 
THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE  EMANCIPATION   LEAGUE,  DEC.   16,   1861. 

T"  DO  not  speak  in  a  representative  capacity,  and 
•*-  the  responsibility  for  what  I  say  is  not  to  be 
divided  or  assumed  by  any  one.  No  person  is  bet 
ter  aware  than  I  am  that  he  who  undertakes  to 
give  public  advice  in  times  of  public  peril  assumes 
a  grave  responsibility.  Nor  is  the  responsibility 
materially  lessened  by  the  fact  that  he  who  assumes 
it  has  but  slight  claims  to  public  consideration.  In 
every  free  government,  and  especially  in  our  own, 
the  mature  and  considerate  judgment  of  the  people 
ultimately  controls  the  administration  of  public 
affairs.  As  the  river  which  drains  and  fertilizes 
half  a  continent  bears  upon  its  bosom  the  navies 
and  commerce  of  an  empire,  and  refuses  to  be  sub 
dued  or  controlled  by  any  power  save  that  of  the 
ocean  itself,  is  but  the  combination  of  minute  rills, 
which,  in  the  mountains  where  they  had  birth, 
escaped  observation ;  so  the  current  of  public  opinion, 
on  which  a  nation  is  borne  to  its  destiny,  is  but  the 
union  of  individual  thoughts,  that,  in  their  expres 
sion,  seemed  powerless  for  evil  or  for  good.  And 
as  the  river  is  dependent  for  its  existence,  as  well  as 


124  EMANCIPATION. 

for  its  purity,  upon  the  mountain  rills,  so  the  cur 
rent  of  public  opinion  is  dependent  for  its  majesty 
and  vigor  upon  the  minute  contributions  that  are 
made  to  it  from  distant  and  unobserved  sources. 
Hence  no  thought  is  lost,  no  contributi<^i  is  unim 
portant;  nor  can  any  one  escape  responsibility, 
however  he  may  shrink  from  duty.  Nor  ought  it 
to  be  admitted,  whatever  the  circumstances  of  peace 
or  war,  that  measures  affecting  the  welfare  of  the 
nation  are  not  to  be  discussed  by  and  before  the  peo 
ple.  But  such  discussions  may  have  evil  effects, 
unless  conducted  with  moderation,  and  under  the 
influence  of  a  sturdy  •  patriotism. 

So,  too,  in  times  of  public  trial,  the  details  of  the 
public  service  must  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  those 
intrusted  with  the  conduct  of  affairs.  There  must, 
moreover,  be  liberality — indeed,  a  broad  and  un 
questioning  generosity -r— in  the  judgment  we  form 
of  those  on  whom  the  responsibility  rests. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  whenever  a  people, 
through  ignorance  or  timidity,  are  incapable  of 
examining  and  considering  matters  of  public  con 
cern  in  a  proper  spirit  and  with  wise  reference  to 
legitimate  ends,  then  are  their  liberties  in  greater 
peril  than  they  can  ever  be  from  the  hostilities  of 
foreign  or  the  machinations  of  domestic  enemies. 

I  have  come  to-night  to  speak  with  great  free 
dom,  but  not  in  the  language  or  spirit  of  complaint 
or  doubt.  We  have  seen  how,  by  the  energy  of 
the  administration,  the  loyalty  of  the  States,  and  the 
patriotism  of  the  people,  an  army  of  two-thirds  of  a 
million  of  men  has  been  raised,  equipped,  and  put 
into  the  field;  how  a  navy  carrying  more  than 


EMANCIPATION.  125 

twenty-five  hundred  guns  has  been  created ;  how 
resources  to  the  amount  of  more  than  two  hundred 
million  of  dollars  have  been  gathered  from  the  vol 
untary  offerings  of  all  classes.  Hence  we  have 
confidence  in  the  future.  Moreover,  the  country 
confides  in  the  President.  To  style  him  honest  is 
but  an  inadequate  expression  of  the  nice  sense  of 
justice — the  highest  human  attribute — which  dis 
tinguishes  him  among  men.  He  also  possesses  what 
Locke  calls  a  large,  sound,  roundabout  sense,  that 
enables  him  to  form  opinions  with  care,  and  to  act 
with  discretion.  These  qualities  are  supported  by 
a  courage  undismayed  in  hours  of  severest  trial. 
He  was  among  those  at  Washington,  who,  after  the 
disaster  of  Bull  Run,  were  unmoved  either  by  fears 
for  their  personal  safety,  or  apprehensions  of  danger 
to  the  fortunes  of  the  republic.  He  is  surrounded 
by  able  and  patriotic  men ;  and  there  is  a  united 
opinion  in  favor  of  giving  to  the  administration  a 
loyal  and  generous  support.  Nor  is  it  any  indica 
tion  of  a  want  of  confidence,  that  the  people  of 
Boston,  who  in  times  of  trial  were  accustomed,  in 
their  assemblies,  to  consider  public  questions,  have 
now  convened  to  contribute,  if  they  may,  to  the  res 
toration  of  peace,  the  re-establishment  of  the  Union, 
and  the  return  of  our  former  political  and  com 
mercial  happiness  and  prosperity.  But  I  may  say 
to  you,  my  friends,  in  the  beginning,  that  I  have 
no  suggestion  to  make,  the  way  to  which  is  not 
clearly  laid  open  in  the  recent  message  of  the  Presi 
dent.  His  recommendation  to  the  Congress  that 
territory  should  be  acquired  to  which  the  black 
population  of  the  United  States  may  be  removed, 


126  EMANCIPATION. 

contains  the  opinion  that  the  slaves  are  to  be  eman 
cipated,  either  as  an  incident  or  a  consequent  of  the 
war.  It  is,  moreover,  the  teaching  of  experience, 
that  great  civil  contests,  based  upon  questions  of 
domestic  policy,  must  be  settled  by  statesmanship ; 
and  when,  as  with  us  now,  a  nation's  existence  is 
in  peril,  questions  of  policy  affecting  that  existence 
must  be  settled  by  a  bold,  vigorous,  comprehensive, 
foreseeing  statesmanship.  For  — 

"•Not  to  the  ensanguined  field  of  death  alone 
Is  Valor  limited :  she  sits  serene 
In  the  deliberate  council ;  sagely  scans 
The  source  of  action  ;  weighs,  prevents,  provides, 
And  scorns  to  count  her  glories  from  the  feats 
Of  brutal  force  alone." 

In  speaking  of  the  justice,  expediency,  and  neces 
sity  of  emancipation  as  the  only  speedy  means  of 
crushing  the  rebellion  and  restoring  the  Union,  I 
impose  on  myself  three  limitations,  and  desire  you 
to  connect  them  with  all  that  I  may  say :  — 

1st.  That  a  military  necessity  exists  for  doing 
what  is  proposed ;  and  that  I  shall  undertake  to 
prove. 

2d.  That  this  necessity  does  not  require  us  to 
take  any  action  in  reference  to  the  loyal  States. 

3d.  That  I  always  and  everywhere  contemplate 
compensation  to  loyal  men. 

And  I  first  inquire,  what  constitutes  a  military 
necessity  ?  I  assume  that  a  military  necessity  does 
not  depend  upon  the  exigencies  of  the  army  in  the 
field ;  but  the  great  military  necessity  is  to  save  the 
government,  and  whatever  is  necessary  for  the  salva- 


EMANCIPATION.  127 

tion  of  the  government  is  clearly  within  the  right 
and  the  duty  of  those  who  administer  it  and  control 
the  military  department  thereof.  I  think  our  Con 
stitution  has  plainly  indicated  what  a  military 
necessity  is,  in  that  provision  which  declares  that 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  suspended, 
unless,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public 
safety  may  require  it.  And  what  do  we  see  to-day  ? 
That  all  of  us  are  here  deprived,  by  the  exigencies 
of  the  times,  of  the  right  which,  from  the  days 
of  Magna  Charta,  with  here  and  there  an  excep 
tion,  has  been  the  security  of  all  Englishmen,  and 
of  all  men  who  inherited  the  rights  and  the  privi 
leges  of  Englishmen.  And  why  ?  Because  it  is 
believed  by  those  intrusted  with  the  administration 
of  public  affairs,  that  the  public  safety  requires  it. 
We  have  given  up  the  great  security  which  we 
had,  that,  whenever  our  liberty  was  taken  from  us, 
we  had  a  right  to  an  inquiry  as  to  the  reason  there 
for  ;  and  that  right  has  departed,  at  the  bidding  of 
the  government,  and  in  obedience  to  the  public  exi 
gencies. 

If  we  demonstrate  that  the  public  safety  requires 
the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  here  or  there  or  any 
where,  then  we  have  demonstrated  that  a  military 
necessity  exists.  My  friends,  you  are  assembled 
with  anxious  countenances  to  consider  how  the 
country  shall  be  saved ;  and  you  instinctively  trace 
our  peril  backward  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  and 
are  convinced  without  argument,  that,  had  slavery 
not  existed  on  this  continent,  there  would  not  be  a 
State — no,  nor  a  county  nor  a  parish  nor  a  man — 
in  all  this  republic  to  say  that  this  Union  ought  not 


123  EMANCIPATION. 

longer  to  exist.  Therefore  we  charge  home,  with 
instinct  and  logic,  the  responsibility  of  the  whole 
matter  to  the  institution  of  slavery.  And  if,  by  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves,  we  can  hasten  by  ono 
day  the  return  of  the  power  of  the  Union  and  our 
lost  prosperity,  does  not  a  military  necessity  exist  ? 

I  hear  a  suggestion  from  many  quarters,  which 
means,  if  I  understand  it,  substantially  this :  that 
South  Carolina  and  her  ten  associates  in  this  rebel 
lion  are  still  entitled  to  the  protection  of  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States ;  and  therefore  we  are 
bound  to  treat  those  States  as  we  treat  the  States 
that  are  still  loyal  to  the  Union.  If  we  yet  labor 
under  that  delusion,  then  God  save  us !  for  not  to 
the  hands  of  man  is  intrusted  the  salvation  of  this 
republic,  if  we  still  indulge  in  the  delusion  that 
South  Carolina  and  New  Yor^:,  that  Florida  and 
Pennsylvania,  that  Mississippi  and  Illinois,  that 
Texas  and  Minnesota,  are  to  be  treated  by  the 
government  of  the  country  as  enjoying  equal  rights 
and  equal  protection  under  the  Constitution. 

We  have  not  thrust  them  out  of  the  Union :  they 
have  gone  out  deliberately,  freely,  without  compul 
sion  ;  and,  in  all  that  relates  to  the  subjugation  of 
the  territory  and  of  the  people  of  the  rebel  States, 
we  must  treat  them  as  enemies,  as  belligerents. 
Are  we  to  ask  whether  we  are  in  war  with  these 
eleven  States,  when  our  frontier,  from  Kansas  to  the 
Chesapeake,  is  menaced  by  their  forces,  and  when  we, 
boasting  that  we  have  six  hundred  and  sixty  thou 
sand  men  in  the  field,  have  been  outnumbered  at 
every  point  ?  If  you  indulge  the  delusion  that  we  are 
not  at  war,  anfl  that  these  people  are  not  to  be  treat- 


EMANCIPATION.  129 

ed  as  enemies,  then  the  destruction  of  the  country  is 
near.  We  must  treat  them  as  enemies.  When  they 
came  into  the  Union,  they  gave  to  the  Union  jurisdic 
tion  over  their  territory.  That  jurisdiction  they  now 
deny :  let  the  armies  of  the  republic  go  forward ;  let 
the  statesmanship  of  the  country  secure  the  right  that 
was  guaranteed  to  us,  and  which  we  have  not  aban 
doned,  however  the  rebels  may  desire  to  put  off  the 
responsibility  from  themselves. 

Whatever  is  necessary  to  be  done  for  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  government  of  the  Union  over 
the  rebellious  States  we  have  a  constitutional  right 
to  do ;  for  the  Constitution,  if  it  secures  any  thing, 
secures  the  integrity  of  the  territory  over  which  and 
to  which  the  Constitution  applies.  The  rebels  have 
no  right  to  complain.  We  secure  constitutional 
rights,  as  far  'as  we  can,  to  all  the  loyal  States  : 
disloyal  States  are  enemies,  and  we  must  so  treat 
them. 

Suppose  there  are  a  few  loyal  men  in  South 
Carolina,  North  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Texas:  are 
they  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  salvation  of  this 
country?  I  trust  not.  When  the  war  is  over, 
when  this  territory  is  restored  to  the  Union,  the 
government  of  the  country  re-established,  then,  if 
these  people  have  suffered  by  any  thing  that  we 
have  done,  make  them  the  compensation  that  is 
then  in  our  power.  But  we  cannot  stop  now,  when 
the  Union  is  in  peril,  when  the  lurid  flames  of  war 
light  up  the  horizon  on  every  quarter,  to  inquire 
whether,  in  South  Carolina  or  in  Georgia  or  in  Ten 
nessee,  there  may  be  men  who,  if  they  could,  would 
be  loyal  to  the  Union. 

9 


130  EMANCIPATION. 

We  have,  my  friends,  labored  under  two  or  three 
delusions.  First,  we  did  not  believe,  twelve  months 
ago,  when  the  nucleus  of  the  "  Confederacy  "  (as  it 
is  now  called)  separated  from  the  old  Union,  that  a 
great  conspiracy  existed.  We  could  not  believe 
that  men  intrusted  with  important  duties — Senators 
and  Representatives  in  Congress,  officers  of  the 
army  and  the  navy  who  had  been  supported  in 
luxury  from  the  treasury  of  the  nation,  Judges  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  men  high  in  authority  through 
out  the  fifteen  slave  States  of  the  Union  —  had 
conspired  criminally,  traitorously,  with  perjury  upon 
their  lips  and  in  their  hearts,  against  a  government 
which,  as  far  as  we  knew,  had  never  pressed  too 
harshly  upon  a  single  citizen  of  the  republic.  We 
could  not  believe  it.  It  was  not  strange  that  we 
did  not  believe  it.  But  now,  after  a'  brief  and  sad 
experience,  we  find  that  for  thirty  years  this  con 
spiracy  had  existed ;  that  it  covered  the  whole  slave 
territory  of  the  Union ;  that  it  had  given  rise  to 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  to  the  compromise  meas 
ures  of  1850,  to  the  repudiation  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  in  1854,  to  the  division  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  at  Charleston  in  1860 ;  that  it  had 
entered  systematically  upon  the  scheme  of  destroy 
ing  the  best  government  which  the  world  had  ever 
seen.  It  was  not  strange  that  we  did  not  believe 
it ;  but  now,  now  we  know  that  it  existed,  and  we 
know,  too,  full  well,  that  it  had  its  origin  in  the 
institution  of  slavery.  And  ought  not  the  judgment 
of  this  country  to  be  visited  upon  that  institution  as 
a  part  of  the  retribution  for  this  foulest  of  human 
crimes  ? 


EMANCIPATION.  131 

It  was  a  delusion,  also,  that  we  did  not  believe 
in  the  unanimity  of  the  South  upon  this  mat 
ter.  We  thought  that  the  movement  was  insti 
gated  and  carried  on  by  a  few  hot-brained  persons, 
whom  we  proposed  to  separate  from  the  great 
majority  of  the  people,  and  dispose  of  without  special 
ceremony.  But  we  have  found,  as  the  war  has 
gone  on,  that  it  either  included  originally  in  the 
conspiracy  all  the  chief  men  of  the  South,  or  that 
they  have  been  drawn,  unwillingly  or  willingly,  into 
it ;  so  that  now  there  is  no  excuse  for  the  man  who 
believes  that  there  is  any  lack  of  unanimity  in  the 
eleven  seceded  States.  We  are  not  more  unanimous 
in  this  hall  or  in  this  State,  or  in  the  free  States  of 
the  Union,  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  Union,  than 
they  are  in  favor  of  breaking  down  this  government, 
and  disgracing  free  institutions  in  the  presence  of 
the  world  and  before  posterity. 

Let  us  no  longer  abide  in  the  delusion  that  there 
is  a  want  of  unanimity  in  the  South. 

Another  delusion  in  which  we  have  indulged,  to 
this  very  hour,  is,  that  they  had  not  resources 
sufficient  to  carry  on  this  war,  and  that  very  soon 
they  would  be  exhausted.  I  shall  have  occasion  to 
discuss  this  subject  further,  as  I  go  on.  But  we 
have  found,  as  a  matter  of  experience,  during  the 
last  twelve  months,  that  they  have  exhibited  no 
evidence  of  a  want  of  resources.  Have  they  not  put 
men  enough  into  the  field  ?  Have  they  not,  as  far 
as  we  know,  equipped  them  sufficiently  for  the  ser 
vice  ?  Have  they  not  had  enough  to  eat,  to  drink, 
and  to  wear  ? 

Then,  as  far  as  the  year's  experience  goes,  we 


132  EMANCIPATION. 

have  been  laboring  under  a  delusion  as  to  the  power 
of  the  South. 

It  may  be  well  enough  to  explore  briefly  the 
causes  of  the  rebellion,  as  developed  in  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery  itself.  And  the  proposition  I 
make  is  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is  of 
such  a  character  that  hostility  to  this  government 
was  inevitable,  sure  to  come  at  some  time  or 
other. 

A  change  of  opinion  has  been  going  on  in  the 
slave  States,  which  perhaps  I  may  well  illustrate  by 
a  short  chapter  from  my  own  experience.  In  1857, 
in  the  month  of  November,  I  was  at  Lexington, 
Kentucky ;  and,  on  the  sabbath,  I  attended  service  at 
what  I  understood  to  be  the  oldest  Methodist  Episco 
pal  church.  I  listened  to  an  able  discourse.  It 
was  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of  three  proposi 
tions,  which,  as  far  as  I  could  judge,  were  accepted 
by  that  congregation.  They  were,  first,  that  the 
Saviour  never  said  any  thing  in  favor  of  human 
equality ;  secondly,  that  he  never  said  any  thing  in 
favor  of  universal  education ;  and  thirdly,  said 
the  preacher,  what  we  need  is  authority  in  the 
Church. 

Do  you  not  see,  if  those  propositions  be  taken  as 
indicating  the  public  sentiment  of  the  South,  that 
slavery  has  worked  two  radical  changes  in  the  peo 
ple,  both  of  which  are  antagonistic  to  free  institu 
tions,  and  upon  which  free  institutions  cannot  long 
be  maintained?  One  is  the  denial  of  the  equality 
of  man ;  the  other  is  the  denial  of  the  right  of 
individual  opinion  in  matters  of  religion. 

And  next  I  maintain,  that  the  Constitution  of 


EMANCIPATION.  133 

the  Union,  having  been  established  for  the  pur 
pose,  as  declared  in  the  preamble,  of  securing 
liberty  to  the  men  who  framed  it  and  to  their  pos 
terity,  was  inadequate  to  meet  the  wants  of  the 
slaveholders. 

We  have  in  the  Constitution  a  provision  giving 
to  the  government  authority  to  put  down  insurrec 
tion.  But  do  you  not  think  that  the  time  was 
foreseen  when,  on  the  plantations  of  the  cotton  dis 
tricts,  the  slave  population  might  rise  and  sweep 
away  the  white  inhabitants  in  a  single  night? 
How  powerless  then  would  be  the  provision  of 
the  Constitution,  even  if  the  government  were 
wielded  by  slaveholders!  Hence  it  is,  that,  since 
the  revolt  commenced,  they  have  steadily  marched 
towards  the  establishment  of  a  military,  slavehold- 
ing  oligarchy ;  for  it  is  the  necessity  of  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery  that  it  shall  be  maintained  by  a 
stronger  government  than  that  for  which  our  Con 
stitution  provided.  And,  in  the  next  place,  —  I  do 
not  propose  to  discuss  it,  but  in  the  next  place, — 
it  was  a  necessity  of  slavery  that  it  should  acquire 
new  territory,  because  it  exhausts  the  land  on  which 
it  fastens.  These,  then,  as  I  believe,  were  the 
causes  of  the  rebellion.  There  were  pretexts,  such 
as  agitation  in  the  North ;  but  they  were  mere  pre 
texts. 

There  were  also  inducements  to  the  rebellion, 
one  of  which  was  a  belief  that  the  North  would  not 
act  unitedly  and  energetically  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  conspirators.  I  may  state  here  what  I  think  will 
be  sustained  by  some  gentlemen  whom  I  see  around 
me ;  andj  inasmuch  as  the  injunction  of  secrecy 


134  EMANCIPATION. 

upon  the  Peace  Congress  was  removed  on  the  last 
day  of  the  session,  I  assert,  but  not  for  the  purpose 
of  arraigning  any  man  before  this  assembly  or 
before  this  country,  that  in  that  Congress  a  Repre 
sentative  from  a  free  State  —  a  State  that  has  with 
great  alacrity  furnished  its  quota  of  men  to  the 
army — announced  to  slaveholders  and  to  non-slave 
holders,  that,  in  case  the  government  undertook  to 
put  down  the  South  "  by  force,"  the  North  would 
furnish  a  regiment  to  fight  with  the  South  as  often 
as  it  furnished  one  to  fight  against  it.  In  justice 
to  the  people  of  the  country,  we  ought  to  say,  in 
this  connection,  that  the  South  has  been  entirely 
disappointed.  The  people,  with  great  unanimity, 
have  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  government;  and 
not  one  regiment,  possibly  not  one  man,  has  been 
found  to  join  the  forces  of  the  South.  But  such 
inducements  undoubtedly  operated  to  lead  the  peo 
ple  of  the  South  forward  in  the  rebellion  they 
had  undertaken. 

Another  inducement  to  the  rebellion  was  the 
bankruptcy  of  the  South.  From  two  to  three 
hundred  million  of  dollars  have  been  repudiated 
by  the  rebellion.  It  is  well  enough  to  remember 
that  as  long  ago  as  1792,  I  think,  Mr.  Jefferson 
wrote  a  letter  to  General  Washington,  urging  him  to 
accept  a  second  term  for  the  Presidency:  and  one 
of  the  five  or  six  reasons  which  he  gave  for  the 
request  was  the  danger  of  secession ;  and  a  reason 
why  he  feared  secession  was,  that  the  South  was 
largely  indebted  to  the  North.  This  indebtedness 
of  the  South  to  the  North,  wiped  out  for  the  last 
fifty  years  at  the  rate  of  two  or  three  million  a  year, 


EMANCIPATION.  135 

and  finally  consummated  by  the  repudiation  of  two 
or  three  hundred  million,  has  always  been  an  ob 
stacle  to  a  firm  union  between  the  two  sections. 
Another  inducement,  by  which  the  South  has  been 
combined  as  one  man,  was  the  cry,  raised  for  the 
first  time  in  that  section  of  the  country  not  more 
than  five  or  six  years  ago,  "  Negroes  for  the  negro- 
less  !  "  Thus  every  poor  white  man  in  the  South, 
who  ignorantly  believed  it  to  be  the  height  of  human 
ambition  to  own  a  negro,  was  inspired  with  a  hope, 
that,  at  some  future  day,  he  might  become  a  slave 
holder,  if  the  rebellion  could  be  carried  on  success 
fully,  the  South  separated  from  the  North,  and 
the  African  slave-trade  opened.  This  is  one  of 
the  means  by  which  the  rebels  have  been  able  to 
combine  the  Southern  strength.  Another  reason 
—  I  will  not  stop  to  discuss  it  —  was  wounded 
pride,  mixed  with  poverty ;  always  a  source  of  dis 
content. 

In  passing,  I  may  say  that  I  believe  the  Southern 
States,  the  Gulf  States,  have  deceived,  to  a  great 
extent,  the  border  slave  States, — Maryland,  Ken 
tucky,  and  Virginia ;  for,  when  the  time  should  have 
come  that  they  could  secure  the  separation  of  the 
slave  States  from  the  free  States,  or  the  Southern 
States  from  the  Northern  States,  they  would  incline 
to  leave  these  border  States  with  the  North,  as  a 
bulwark  against  the  spread  of  anti-slavery  opinions 
southward,  knowing,  that,  under  the  Constitution,  we 
should  return  fugitives  to  these  border  States,  and 
the  border  States,  by  State  legislation,  would  return 
fugitives  from  the  seceded  States. 

Will  the  rebellion  exhaust  itself?     Consider  the 


136  EMANCIPATION. 

extent  of  the  territory  that  it  includes.  Consider 
the  resources  of  that  country  in  soil  an<J  climate. 
Consider  the.  fact,  that,  in  consequence  of  the  exist 
ence  of  slavery,  they  can  put  in  the  field  and 
equip,  allowing  the  institution  of  slavery  to  re 
main,  one-tenth  or  even  one-eighth  of  their  entire 
white  population.  And  though,  with  the  blockade, 
we  close  up  the  ports,  so  that  they  are  deprived  of 
certain  luxuries  and  necessities  of  life,  they  yet  can 
command  those  great  staples  on  which  their  armies 
will  depend  for  subsistence.  They  possess  one 
power  which  we  have  not  yet  attained,  and  which, 
I  trust,  is  not  in  store  for  us :  they  repudiate  their 
debts  as  fast  as  they  are  contracted,  "  leaving  the 
things  that  are  behind,  and  pressing  forward  to 
those  that  are  before."  It  was  the  estimate  of 
Napoleon,  that  no  nation  could  keep  more  than  one 
in  forty  of  its  population  in  the  field.  The  State  of 
Indiana  has  put  one  in  twenty  of  its  entire  popula 
tion  into  the  army ;  other  States,  one  in  twenty-five, 
one  in  thirty,  one  in  thirty-five,  one  in  forty.  If  it 
be  assumed  that  the  free  States  can  put  into  the 
field,  and  keep  in  the  field,  one  in  thirty  of  the 
entire  population,  our  army  will  not  consist  of  more 
than  about  seven  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  or 
seven  hundred  and  forty  thousand  men ;  and,  if  you 
allow  the  institution  of  slavery  to  remain,  the  three 
and  a  half  millions  of  men  and  women  in  the  revolted 
States  to  continue  upon  the  plantations,  guarded  by 
white  women,  aged  men,  and  children,  all  armed, — 
if  you  allow  the  three  and  a  half  millions  to  remain 
upon  the  plantations  and  produce  subsistence  for  tho 
army,  they  can  keep  one-tenth*  or  one-eighth  of  their 


EMANCIPATION.  137 

entire  white  population  in  the  field.  If  you  strike 
from  the  resources  of  the  South  the  supplies  which 
are  furnished  by  the  three  and  a  half  million  of  black 
people,  do  you  not  see  that  a  portion  of  the  men 
who  are  in  the  army  of  the  South  must  go  home  to 
produce  supplies  ?  Therefore  the  effect  of  allowing 
the  institution  of  slavery  to  remain  is  to  give  them 
an  equal  opportunity  with  us  in  every  contest.  But, 
if  we  deprive  them  of  the  support  they  derive  from 
their  slaves,  then  a  portion  of  their  army  must 
return  to  the  plantations,  and  they  would  be  reduced 
to  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  or  two  hundred 
thousand  men,  and  the  war  would  be  at  an  end. 

We  may  very  well  inquire  whether  this  rebel 
lion,  if  it  go  on,  is  to  exhaust  us.  I  do  not  pro 
pose  to  pursue  the  financial  inquiry ;  but  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
estimates  that  the  public  debt,  on  the  30th  of  June, 
1863,  —  a  year  from  next  June, — will  amount  to 
nine  hundred  million  dollars.  If  it  shall  happen  in 
consequence  of  the  check  that  is  given  to  the  exporta 
tion  of  cotton,  and  in  consequence  of  a  good  supply 
of  breadstuffs  next  year  in  Europe,  that  there  shall  be 
no  demand  for  any  of  the  products  of  this  country,  and 
there  should  be  a  demand  for  specie  in  consequence 
of  excessive  importations  made  inevitable  because 
of  an  increase  in  your  circulating  medium,  who 
does  not  see  that  bankruptcy  is  before  us  ?  And  it 
is  well  to  consider  whether,  if  we  have  no  regard 
for  the  black  man, — it  is  well  for  the  merchants  of 
Boston  and  New  York,  the  men  who  have  four 
million  tons  of  shipping  on  the  ocean,  a  million  in 
the  East  Indies,  to  consider  whether  we  are  willing 


138  EMANCIPATION. 

to  involve  ourselves  in  a  common  bankruptcy,  rather 
than  to  strike,  while  we  have  the  power,  at  the 
foundation  on  which  this  rebellion  rests. 

It  is  a  necessity  that  this  war  shall  be  closed 
speedily.  We  have  tried  the  blockade.  It  has  been 
to  a  good  degree  effectual.  But  do  you  not  see  that 
it  is  powerless  with  reference  to  producing  that 
which  we  expected  from  it,  —  the  suppression  of  the 
rebellion  ?  Though  our  ships  line  the  whole  coast, 
from  Galveston  to  the  Chesapeake  ;  though  we  keep 
out  foreign  supplies  of  every  sort ;  though  we  cut 
off  the  export  trade  in  cotton, — still  these  slaves  pro 
duce  that  on  which  the  rebel  armies,  armies  in  the 
field,  depend.  You  may  say  we  can,  by  one  decisive 
battle,  settle  this  matter.  We  ,have  had  one  hun 
dred  thousand,  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  for 
aught  I  know  two  hundred  thousand,  men  on 
the  banks  of  the  Potomac  for  the  last  sixty  or 
ninety  days.  Possibly  by  battle  we  might  settle 
this  matter  ;  but  we  run  a  great  risk.  We  thought, 
when  in  July  our  army  went  forth  with  banners  and 
trumpets,  they  were  marching  to  victory.  Our  sol 
diers  fought  well,  victory  seemed  within  their  grasp, 
and  yet  defeat  —  temporary  defeat  —  to  our  arms 
resulted.  And  who  knows,  that,  with  new  leaders 
and  new  men,  we  are  to  gain  a  decisive  advantage  ? 
When  there  are  other  means  to  settle  this  matter, 
will  we  risk  the  existence  of  this  republic — risk 
freedom,  and  its  name  and  fame  in  all  the  nations, 
and  throughout  all  time  —  on  the  capacity  of  gener 
als  on  the  Potomac  ?  I  say  no,  if  it  can  be  avoided. 
Wars  and  battles  are  not  the  worst  of  evils,  but 
they  are  to  be  avoided  when  and  where  we  can  avoid 


EMANCIPATION.  139 

them.  The  life  of  the  nation  is  involved  in  this 
contest,  to  say  nothing  of  the  men.  All  of  us  have 
sent  our  friends,  brothers,  kindred, — those  who  are 
dearer  to  us  than  our  own  lives  ;  and  shall  we  peril 
them  on  the  Potomac,  in  Kentucky,  in  Missouri,  in 
South  Carolina,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, — 
where  my  own  friends  and  neighbors  and  townsmen 
are  to-night,  —  shall  we  risk  their  lives  rather  than 
strike  at  the  institution  of  slavery,  when  we  know 
that  the  rebellion  rests  upon  slavery,  and  will  go 
down  when  slavery  ceases  to  support  it?  Have 
you  yet  other  men  whom  you  wish  to  sacrifice  upon 
this  altar  ?  Ellsworth,  Lyon,  Baker,  and  others  of 
equal  virtue  and  equal  patriotism,  with  names  un 
known,  have  gone  down  upon  bloody  fields,  sacri 
ficed  at  the  shrine  of  slavery ;  and  will  you  offer  up 
more,  and  yet  more,  of  the  best  blood  of  the  country 
— the  young  men,  the  hope  of  the  nation,  the 
strength  of  the  future  —  in  order  that  slavery  may 
longer  last? 

I  say,  then,  it  is  a  necessity  that  this  war  be 
closed  speedily.  By  blockade  it  cannot  be:  by 
battle  it  may  be ;  but  we  risk  the  result  upon  the 
uncertainty  whether  the  great  general  of  this  conti 
nent  is  with  them  or  with  us.  I  come,  then,  to 
emancipation.  Not  first, — although  I  shall  not  hesi 
tate  to  say,  before  I  close,  that,  as  a  matter  of  justice 
to  the  slave,  the're  should  be  emancipation, — but 
not  first  do  I  ask  my  countrymen v  to  proclaim  eman 
cipation  to  the  slaves  in  justice  to  them,  but  as  a 
matter  of  necessity  to  ourselves  ;  for,  unless  it  be  by 
accident,  we  are  not  to  come  out  of  this  contest  as 
•  one  nation,  except  by  •  emancipation.  And  first, 


140  EMANCIPATION. 

emancipation  in  South  Carolina.  Not  confiscation 
of  the  property  of  rebels :  that  is  inadequate  longer 
to  meet  the  emergency.  It  might  have  done  in 
March  or  April  or  May,  or  possibly  in  July ;  but,  in 
December,  or  January  of  the  coming  year,  confisca 
tion  of  the  property  of  the  rebels  is  inadequate  to 
meet  the  exigency  in  which  the  country  is  placed. 
You  must,  if  you  do  any  thing,  proclaim  at  the  head 
of  the  armies  of  the  republic,  on  the  soil  of  South 
Carolina,  FREEDOM,  —  freedom  to  all  the  slaves  in 
South  Carolina,  —  and  then  enforce  the  proclamation 
as  far  and  fast  as  you  have  an  opportunity ;  and  you 
will  have  opportunity  more  speedily  then  than  you 
will  if  you  attempt  to  invade  South  Carolina  with 
out  emancipating  her  slaves.  Unsettle  the  founda 
tions  of  society  in  South  Carolina :  do  you  hear  the 
rumbling?  Not  we,  not  we,  are  responsible  for 
what  happens  in  South  Carolina  between  the  slaves 
and  their  masters.  Our  business  is  to  save  the 
Union ;  to  re-establish  the  authority  of  the  Union 
over  the  rebels  in  South  Carolina ;  and,  if  between 
the  masters  and  their  slaves  collisions  arise,  the 
responsibility  is  upon  those  masters  who,  forgetting 
their  allegiance  to  the  government,  lent  themselves 
to  this  foul  conspiracy,  and  thus  have  been  in 
volved  in  ruin.  As  a  warning,  let  South  Carolina 
be  the  first  of  the  States  of  the  republic  in  which 
emancipation  to  the  enslaved  is*  proclaimed,  and 
as  a  penalty  for  her  perfidy  in  this  business, 
which  began  at  the  moment  that  her  delegates 
penned  their  names  to  the  Constitution  when  it  was 
formed.  Treachery  was  in  their  hearts  then,  and 
they  have  adhered  to  their  disloyalty  through  evil 


EMANCIPATION.  141 

report  and  through  good  report ;  but  I  trust  the  day 
is  now  near  when,  by  the  reconstruction  of  South- 
Carolina  society,  we  shall  there  have  a  State  which, 
in  process  of  time,  will  be  loyal  to  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union. 

Next,  Florida.  Impotent  in  her  treachery ;  pur 
chased  with  the  money  of  the  people  ;  with  less  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  inhabitants;  with 
property,  I  suppose,  not  of  equal  value  to  that  which 
might  be  found  in  a  single  ward  in  this  city,  —  she 
has  undertaken  to  lend  herself  to  this  conspiracy. 
Emancipate  the  slaves  that  are  there,  and  invite  the 
refugees  from  slavery  in  the  South,  for  the  moment, 
to  assemble  there,  if  they  desire,  but  without  compul 
sion,  and  take  possession  of  the  soil.  If  that  is  not 
sufficient,  let  the  penalty  upon  South  Carolina  be 
increased  by  dividing  her  soil  among  those  whom -she 
has  heretofore  held  in  bondage. 

And  next  in  this  work  of  emancipation  I  name 
Texas ;  for,  if  we  read  the  history  of  the  last  twenty- 
four  months  aright,  these  people  have  gone  out  of 
the  Union  because  they  see  they  cannot  extend 
slavery  in  the  Union.  It  was  not  because  a  few 
abolitionists  in  the  North  hated  slavery ;  it  was  not 
because  some  of  us  went  to  Chicago  in  May,  1860, 
and  nominated  Abraham  Lincoln  for  President,  and 
then  elected  him:  but  it  was  because  men  of  all 
parties  and  all  persuasions  and  all  ideas,  in  the 
North,  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  slavery 
should  not  be  extended.  It  was  the  doctrine  of 
churches,  the  doctrine  of  homes  and  hearth-stones, 
that  slavery  should  not  be  extended ;  and  hence  the 
slave  States  went  out  of  the  Union.  "Which  way  do 


142  EMANCIPATION. 

they  expect  to  extend  slavery  ?  Southward,  through 
and  over  Texas,  into  Mexico  and  into  Central  Ameri 
ca,  thus  cutting  us  off  from  the  Pacific,  separating  us 
from  our  possessions  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
and  rendering  another  division  of  the  Union,  by  the 
line  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  inevitable.  Now, 
then,  let  us  teach  them,  by  emancipation  in  Texas, 
that,  in  the  Union  or  out  of  the  Union,  slavery  is 
not  to  be  extended.  Emancipate  the  slaves  in 
Texas ;  invite  men  from  the  army,  from  the  North, 
from  Ireland,  from  Germany ;  invite  the  friends  of 
freedom,  of  every  name  and  of  every  nation,  and 
bid  them  welcome  in  Texas,  where  we  have  one  hun 
dred  and  seventy-five  million  acres  of  unoccupied 
land,  or  shall  have,  when  we  confiscate  it  to  the 
government  of  the  United  States.  Thus  we  form  a 
barrier  of  freemen,  a  wall  over  which  or  through 
which  or  beneath  which  it  will  be  impossible  for 
slavery  to  pass. 

I  do  not  pursue  the  subject  of  emancipation 
further.  These  three  States  will  be  sufficient  for 
warning  and  penalty,  for  refuge  and  for  security 
against  the  extension  of  slavery;  but  I  certainly 
would  have  it  understood  distinctly,  that,  by  the 
next  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  the  Father  of 
his  Country,  we  shall  emancipate  the  slaves  in  all 
the  disloyal  and  rebellious  States,  if  they  do  not 
previously  return  to  their  allegiance. 

"What  will  you  do,"  says  one,  "if  you  eman 
cipate  the  slaves  ? "  My  friend,  what  will  you  do 
if  you  don't  ?  What  are  we  doing  now,  when  we 
have  not  emancipated  the  -slaves  ?  I  want  to  tell 
you  what  Mr.  Jefferson  thought,  more  than  sixty 


EMANCIPATION.  143 

years  ago,  and  I  ask  you  if  that  which  he  feared 

is  not  in  process  of  completion  to-day  ?     He  says, 

in  a  letter  to  St.  George  Tucker,  dated  Aug.  28, 
1797:- 

"  Perhaps  the  first  chapter  of  this  history  which  has 
begun  in  St.  Domingo,  and  the  next  succeeding  ones,  which 
will  recount  how  all  the  whites  were  driven  from  all  the 
other  islands,  may  prepare  our  minds  for  a  peaceable 
accommodation  between  justice,  policy,  and  necessity,  and 
furnish  an  answer  to  the  difficult  question,  Whither  shall 
the  colored  emigrants  go  ?  And,  the  sooner  we  put  some 
plan  under  way,  the  greater  hope  there  is  that  it  may  be 
permitted  to  proceed  peaceably  to  its  ultimate  object.  But 
if  something  is  not  done,  and  soon  done,  we  shall  be  the 
murderers  of  our  own  children." 

Terribly  prophetic  words !  Terrible  in  the  possi 
bility  of  their  fulfilment ! 

What  will  you  do  with  the  negroes,  if  you  emanci 
pate  them?  As  between  what  we  may  or  can  do 
with  them  and  the  salvation  of  this  country,  we 
ought  not  to  hesitate  a  moment.  They  are  but  four 
million ;  and,  though  in  their  weakness  they  plead, 
here  are  five  and  twenty  million  of  men  who  ask  a 
country ;  all  the  coming  generations  of  this  conti 
nent  rise  now  and  demand  sacrifices  of  us  all,  that 
we  may  secure  and  preserve  a  country  for  them. 
Mankind  everywhere  gaze  with  anxious  eyes  upon 
this  contest,  lest  the  last  hope  of  liberty  should  go 
out  in  this' our  land;  and  if — I  do  not  hesitate  to 
say  —  if  the  salvation  of  the  country  demanded  the 
sacrifice  of  four  million  on  this  continent,  black  or 
white,  slave  or  free,  North  or  South,  it  would  be  a 
sacrifice  well  made  for  so  great  a  cause.  But,  my 


144  EMANCIPATION. 

friends,  it  demands  no  such  sacrifice.  These  four 
million  of  people  are  able  to  take  care  of  themselves. 
Have  you  considered  what  it  requires  to  take  care 
of  one's  self?  I  do  not  mean,  when  I  say  that  these 
four  million  are  able  to  take  care  of  themselves, 
that  they  can  build  cities,  that  they  can  set  afloat  a 
vast  commerce ;  I  do  not  say  that  they  can  imme 
diately  become  proficients  in  the  arts  and  sciences, — 
I  do  not  know  that  they  ever  can :  but  do  you  not 
see,  on  the  face  of  things,  that  the  slaves  of  the 
South  have  to-day  possession  of  those  industries, 
are  accustomed  to  the  exercise  of  those  physical 
and  mental  faculties,  on  which  society  primari 
ly  depends  ?  They  are  able  to  take  care  of  them 
selves. 

I  should  like,  my  friends,  to  spend  a  moment  in 
stating  some  facts  in  regard  to  the  British  West 
Indies,  because  I  believe  that  the  public  mind  has 
been,  to  a  great  extent,  deceived  by  the  representa 
tions  that  have  been  made,  through  the  agency"  of 
slavery,  in  reference  to  the  results  of  emancipation 
in  those  islands.  If  you  will  pardon  me  a  moment, 
I  will  read  certain  statistics,  which,  in  their  results, 
show  what  has  been  accomplished  by  the  black  pop 
ulation  of  the  West  Indies,  emancipated  by  the 
British  Government  seven  and  twenty  years  ago. 
I  venture  to  anticipate  what  I  am  to  say,  by  ex 
pressing  my  belief,  that,  with  the  exception  of  Greece, 
where,  thirty  years  since,  there  was  hardly  a  house 
with  a  roof  on  it,  there  are  no  people  on  the  face 
of  the  earth  who  have  made  more  progress  than 
the  emancipated  slaves  in  some  of  the  British  West 
Indies.  What  have  they  done?  Take,  for  exam- 


EMANCIPATION.  145 

pie,  Barbadoes.  They  have  opened  schools,  and, 
with  a  population  of  140,000,  have  some  7,000  chil 
dren  in  the  schools ;  and  they  have  over  3,000  land 
holders.  In  Antigua,  with  a  population  of  35,000, 
they  have  more  than  10,000  children  in  the  day 
and  Sunday  schools ;  and  5,000  landholders  among 
those  who  were  slaves  seven  and  twenty  years  ago. 
In  Tobago,  there  are  2,500  land-owners,  with  a  pop 
ulation  of  15,000.  In  St.  Lucia,  with  25,000  inhab 
itants,  there  are  more  than  2,000  land-owners.  And 
even  in  Jamaica,  which  is  the  exception  to  the  West- 
India  Islands  in  the  matter  of  prosperity  since 
emancipation,  in  a  population  of  some  400,000, 
they  have  50,000  freeholders. 

So,  then,  if  you  test  that  people  who  came  from 
slavery  and  barbarism  seven  and  twenty  years  ago 
by  the  two  tests  of  primary  civilization,  cultivation 
of  the  soil  and  education  of  the  children,  they  have 
made  great  progress.  But  it  is  well  worth  while 
to  remember  that  Barbadoes  is  one  of  the  most 
populous  portions  of  the  globe.  Of  the  106,000 
acres  of  land,  100,000  are  under  cultivation ;  and 
the  price  of  the  cultivated  land  is  from  four  to  five 
hundred  dollars  an  acre. 

If  we  show  that  in  one  single  instance  emanci 
pated  slaves  have  been  able  to  take  care  of  them 
selves  and  make  progress,  though  there  may  be 
twenty  instances  of  failure,  still  the  one  instance 
of  success  demonstrates  their  capacity;  and  their 
failures  are  to  be  attributed  to  misfortune  and  the 
influence  of  circumstances. 

In  the  next  place  (although  I  do  not  intend  to 
go  into  the  financial  aspect  of  the  question),  I 

10 


146  EMANCIPATION. 

will  read  the  results  of  the  cultivation  of  sugar, 
which  is  the  great  article  of  export  in  those  islands  ; 
and  I  know  very  well  that  the  commercial  com 
munity  is  interested  in  whatever  relates  to  exports 
and  imports.  The  dependencies  of  Guiana,  Trini 
dad,  Barbadoes,  and  Antigua,  previous  to  emanci 
pation,  produced  187,000,000  pounds  of  sugar  ;  and, 
in  1856-7,  they  produced  annually  265,000,000,— 
showing  a  gain  of  nearly  78,000,000  a  year :  and 
their  imports  went  up  from  $8,840,000  to  $14,- 
600,000  a  year.  And  the  present  Governor-General 
of  Jamaica,  Mr.  Hincks,  whom  some  of  you  may 
remember  as  the  former  Attorney-General  of  Can 
ada,  and  who  was  here  in  1851  at  the  railway 
celebration,  as  it  was  called,  states,  from  his  own 
knowledge  and  observation,  that,  on  an  estate  in 
Barbadoes,  ninety  blacks  perform  the  work  formerly 
done  by  two  hundred  and  thirty  slaves ;  and  that 
the  produce  of  each  laborer  during  slavery  was 
1,043  pounds  of  sugar,  and  the  produce  of  each  la 
borer  since  emancipation  is  3,660  pounds,  annually. 
He  also  states  that  the  cost  per  hogshead,  under 
slavery,  was  £10  sterling ;  while,  in  1858,  it  was  pro 
duced  at  a  cost  of  £4  sterling.  So  we  see,  that, 
whether  we  test  the  black  population  of  the  British 
West  Indies  by  the  fact  that  they  have  established 
schools,  by  the  fact  that  they  have  become  land 
holders,  or  by  the  fact  that  they  export  of  their 
main  staple  more  than  they  did  formerly,  they  still 
have  demonstrated  their  capacity  to  take  care  of 
themselves. 

But  I  say  further,  my  friends,  that  it  is  not  a 
matter  for  argument,  but  within  the  range  of  the 


EMANCIPATION.  147 

commonest  observation,  that  the  time  is  approach 
ing  when  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  in  this 
country  must  take  place.  It  is  inevitable ;  and 
we  have  now,  I  think,  only  a  choice  of  ways.  Eman 
cipation  may  take  place  by  the  efforts  of  the  slaves 
themselves ;  it  may  take  place  by  act  of  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States ;  it  may  take  place  by 
the  action  of  the  slaveholders  themselves,  who  led  in 
this  rebellion.  But,  for  us,  it  is  first  a  matter  of 
justice.  I  said  I  would  not  omit  that  consideration, 
and  I  will  not,  as  a  matter  of  justice  to  the  slaves 
themselves,  who  certainly  have  been  subjected  to 
a  sufficient  apprenticeship  under  slavery,  through 
two  centuries,  to  prepare  them  for  freeedom, — 
which  these  gentlemen  have  told  you  is  the  legiti 
mate  and  natural  result  of  apprenticeship  in  sla 
very, —  if  they  are  ever  to  be  prepared.  Justice 
to  the  slaves  demands  emancipation.  I  will  not 
make  for  myself,  though  others  may  for  themselves, 
the  nice  distinction  which  you  remember  was  made 
by  Mr.  Croswell,  when  he  wrote  a  letter  endorsing 
and  explaining  the  speech  of  Colonel  Cochrane. 
He  says,  "  The  difference  between  the  abolitionists 
and  the  Union-defenders  is  this :  the  abolition 
ists  are  in  favor  of  emancipation  because  it  would 
be  a  benefit  to  the  slaves ;  we  are  in  favor  of 
emancipation  because  it  would  be  an  injury  to  or 
diminish  the  power  of  the  rebel  masters."  I  do 
not  care  about  this  nice  distinction.  It  reminds 
me  of  what  Macaulay  says  of  the  Puritans.  "  The 
Puritans,"  says  Macaulay,  "  hated  bear-baiting, 
not  because  it  gave  pain  to  the  bear,  but  because 
it  gave  pleasure  to  the  spectators."  Whatever 


148  EMANCIPATION. 

your  opinion  may  be,  if  you  are  in  favor  of  eman 
cipation,  I  do  not  greatly  care  whether  you  favor 
it  as  a  matter  of  justice  to  the  slaves  or  as  a  pun 
ishment  to  the  masters.  And  we  must  agree,  my 
friends,  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The 
fundamental  difference  on  which  the  North  and 
South  have  divided  for  thirty  years  is  on  that  part 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  which  says, 
"  All  men  are  created  equal."  The  South  has 
denied  it :  we  have  undertaken  to  maintain  it.  We 
ought  to  consider  (if  you  will  allow  me  a  moment 
by  way  of  explanation)  that  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  was  prepared  as  a  political  document. 
It  did  not  relate  to  those  differences  among  men 
which  we  see,  which  we  recognize,  which  are  natural, 
which  are  divine,  which  are  not  to  be  complained 
of.  But  Jefferson  meant,  when  he  penned  that 
provision,  that  no  person  was  by  birth  under  any 
political  subserviency  to  any  other  person.  That 
is  what  he  meant.  Not  that  men  are  of  equal  height 
or  weight,  equal  moral  influence  or  intellectual 
capacities ;  but  that  all  are  equal  in  this,  —  that 
no  one  is  born  under  any  subserviency,  politically, 
to  his  fellow-man.  Let  us  maintain  the  doctrine 
now.  These  slaves  are  men :  Jefferson  did  not  hes 
itate  to  call  them  "  brethren."  In  a  letter  to  M.  de 
Munier,  explaining  the  reason  why  neither  Mr. 
Wythe  nor  himself  had  proposed  to  insert  a  clause 
for  emancipation  into  the  slave  code  of  Virginia, 
he  says : — 

"  There  were  not  wanting  in  that  assembly  men  of 
virtue  enough  to  propose,  and  talents  to  vindicate,  this 
clause.  But  they  saw  that  the  moment  of  doing  it  with 


EMANCIPATION.  149 

success  was  not  yet  arrived;  and  that  an  unsuccessful 
effort,  as  too  often  happens,  would  only  rivet  still  closer 
the  chains  of  bondage,  and  retard  the  moment  of  delivery 
to  this  oppressed  description  of  man.  But  we  must  await 
with  patience  the  workings  of  an  overruling  Providence, 
and  hope  that  that  is  preparing  the  deliverance  of  these 
our  suffering  brethren.  When  the  measure  of  their  tears 
shall  be  full,  when  their  groans  shall  have  involved  heaven 
itself  in  darkness,  doubtless  a  God  of  justice  will  awaken 
to  their  distress,  and  by  diffusing  light  and  liberality 
among  their  oppressors,  or,  at  length,  by  his  exterminating 
thunder,  manifest  his  attention  to  the  things  of  this  world, 
and  that  they  are  not  left  to  the  guidance  of  a  blind 
fatality." 

These  slaves  are  men.  The  declaration  concern-  * 
ing  the  equality  of  all  men  applies  to  them  as  to 
us ;  and,  now  that  in  the  progress  of  events  the 
South  has  relieved  us  of  responsibility  in  regard 
to  eleven  disloyal  States,  let  us  stand  forth  as  a 
nation  in  our  original  strength  and  purity,  main 
taining  the  ideas  to  which  our  fathers  gave  utter 
ance,  but  which,  under  the  circumstances,  they 
were  not  able  always  and  everywhere  to  enforce. 
Let  us  in  the  presence  of  these  slaveholders  and 
rebels,  and  in  the  presence  of  Europe,  proclaim  the 
equality  of  all  men. 

As  to  the  expediency,  still  further:  Have  you 
ever  considered  that  the  South  has  taken  possession, 
by  circumstances  and  by  skill,  of  the  best  territory, 
in  soil  and  climate,  upon  this  continent?  This 
territory  has  been  given  up  to  slavery;  and  the 
men  of  Massachusetts,  of  the  North,  have  not  'the 
power  to  go  there  in  the  presence  of  slavery,  and  de- 


150  EMANCIPATION. 

velop  the  natural  resources  of  that  extensive  coun 
try.  We  have  taken  possession  of  the  fertile  lands 
this  side  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  and  it  is  a  necessity 
of  our  existence  that  freedom  should  go  South. 
Therefore  it  is  a  necessity  that  slavery  should  dis 
appear.  Have  you,  merchants,  considered  —  have 
you,  manufacturers,  considered  —  that  the  seven 
hundred  thousand  negroes  of  the  South,  engaged  in 
the  cultivation  of  cotton,  have  a  monopoly  of  the  best 
cotton  lands  on  the  surface  of  the  globe,  and  that 
their  interest  is  to  produce  just  as  little  as  possible  ? 
What  is  your  interest?  Your  interest  is  to  have 
these  lands  developed  so  that  they  shall  produce  as 
much  as  possible.  From  1845  to  1857,  the  supply 
of  cotton  in  all  the  markets  of  the  world  diminished 
nine  hundred  thousand  bales  ;  and  the  price  went  up 
from  the  producing  price  of  five  or  six  cents  to  ten, 
twelve,  fourteen,  and  sixteen  cents  a  pound ;  the 
manufacturers  working  all  the  time  upon  short  pro 
ducts  of  the  raw  material,  and  paying  famine  prices. 
We  are  told  by  statisticians  that  the  whole  popula 
tion  of  the  globe  is  ten  or  eleven  hundred  million. 
The  total  product  of  manufactured  cotton  goods 
has  never  exceeded  seventy  cents  for  each  inhabi 
tant  of  the  globe.  Produce  cotton  by  free  labor  on 
the  productive  land  of  the  South,  develop  it  in 
Egypt,  in  India,  in  South  America,  —  wherever,  on 
the  broad  zone  of  seventy  degrees,  cotton  can  be 
raised  at  five  or  six  cents  a  pound,  and  pay  to  the 
producer  a  good  profit,  —  and  your  manufacturers 
in  New  England,  in  the  free  States,  in  England,  in 
France,  will  double  and  treble  the  amount  of  goods 
now  produced. 


EMANCIPATION.  151 

Is  it  not  a  matter  of  some  consequence  to  manu 
facturers,  to  the  people,  to  the  laborers  everywhere, 
that  we  should  take  these  fertile  and  productive 
cotton  lands  out  of  the  control  of  these  seven  hun' 
dred  thousand  slaves ;  make  them  free  men ;  stim 
ulate  them  by  wages ;  invade  those  cotton  lands, 
which  can  be  worked  by  white  labor,  as  one-eighth 
of  the  cotton  lands  of  the  country  are  now  worked  by 
white  labor,  and  thus  increase  the  product  of  cotton 
twenty-five,  fifty,  seventy-five,  and,  in  a  few  years, 
one  hundred  per  cent. ;  and  stimulate  the  industry, 
and  increase  the  comforts  and  conveniences,  of  all 
mankind  ? 

If  you  look  at  this  matter  merely  in  a  commer 
cial  point  of  view,  will  you  allow  slavery  to  retain 
the  best  cotton  lands,  and  allow  these  lands  to 
remain  in  possession  of  slaves? 

I  heard  a  suggestion  just  now,  from  the  other 
part  of  the  hall,  to  the  effect  —  if  I  understand  it 
correctly  —  that,  if  we  emancipate  the  slaves,  a  great 
many  of  them  will  come  this  way.  Have  you  ever 
thought,  my  friend,  if  you  do  not  emancipate  the 
negroes,  that,  in  consequence  of  the  disturbed  con 
dition  of  affairs,  they  will  escape  and  invade  the 
free  States,  and  you  will  have  the  negroes  here, 
whether  you  will  or  not?  But,  if  you  emancipate 
the  slaves  in  the  South,  —  assuming  what  Mr.  Yan- 
cey  said  in  Faneuil  Hall  last  year,  —  the  negroes 
of  the  North  will  go  South ;  for  he  said  they  en 
joyed  nothing  so  much  as  basking  in  the  sun,  with 
the  temperature  at  one  hundred  and  ten  degrees. 
If  the  slaves  be  emancipated,  what  with  their  own 
natural  ability  and  such  aids  and  appliances  as 


152  EMANCIPATION. 

the  government  and  twenty  million  of  people  in 
the  North  can  furnish,  they  will  get  employment, 
pay,  and  subsistence. 

Another  consideration  that  ought  to  be  taken  into 
account  by  the  commercial  men  of  the  North  is, 
that  if  we  emancipate  the  slaves,  and  dedicate  this 
country  to  freedom,  the  process  of  bankruptcy  and 
repudiation,  as  a  general  thing,  will  come  to  an  end, 
instead  of  your  being  called  every  year,  in  ordinary 
times,  to  contribute  one,  two,  or  three  million  to 
the  support  of  the  South.  The  time  has  come, 
after  sixty,  seventy,  or  eighty  years  of  experience, 
when  it  is  a  right  which  we  may  demand,  that  the 
people  who  occupy  the  best  portion  of  the  North- 
American  continent  shall  earn  their  own  living,  and 
pay  their  own  debts. 

The  other  consideration,  as  a  matter  of  necessity, 
to  which  I  invite  your  attention,  is  this :  Having 
been  involved  as  we  are  by  slavery,  and  a  conspiracy 
and  rebellion  based  on  slavery,  we  have  a  right  to 
take  security  for  the  future,  that  there  shall  be 
no  other  conspiracy,  that  there  shall  be  no  other 
rebellion,  that  there  shall  be  no  other  war  reserved 
for  future  generations,  growing  out  of  this  institu 
tion.  Slavery,  in  its  essential  characteristics,  is  a 
despotism ;  and  you  will  search  long,  and  be  dis 
appointed  often,  when  you  seek  for  a  slaveholder  who 
is  in  heart  desirous  of  supporting  free,  democratic, 
republican  institutions.  If  you  would  take  security 
for  the  future  peace  of  the  republic,  it  must  be  by 
dedicating  this  territory  to  freedom.  Nothing  else 
will  give  the  country  security  for  the  future,  or  free 
dom  to  the  States  that  are  now  engaged  in  the  re 
bellion. 


EMANCIPATION.  153 

Emancipation  is  inevitable,  first,  possibly,  by  the 
act  of  the  slaves  themselves.  I  ask  whether  you — 
I  do  not  ask  whether  the  people  of  Charleston, 
with  their  city  in  flames,  with  the  power  of  the 
slave  population  in  some  way  or  other  felt  in  this 
their  great  calamity,  —  I  do  not  ask  whether  they 
prefer  the  emancipation  that  took  place  in  Jamaica, 
or  that  which  took  place  in  St.  Domingo ;  but  I  ask 
you  if,  now,  after  the  sacrifices  you  have  made  in  the 
service  of  slavery,  the  expenses  in  which  you  are 
involved,  the  just  and  righteous  hatred  you  have 
for  the  leaders  in  rebellion,  —  I  ask  you  if,  after  all 
this  experience,  you  ought  not  to  choose  an  eman 
cipation  such  as  took  place  in  Jamaica,  rather  than 
reserve  this  question  of  slavery  until  emancipation 
takes  place  as  it  did  in  St.  Domingo.  You  cannot 
hesitate,  whether  you  look  to  your  own  interest,  to 
your  own  comfort,  or  whether  you  regard  the  inter 
est,  the  comfort,  the  welfare,  and  the  safety  of  the 
slaveholders  themselves.  And  bear  one  thing  in 
mind,  —  that,  in  Jamaica,  thirty  insurrections  oc 
curred  in  the  century  preceding  emancipation,  the 
last  of  which  involved  the  destruction  of  eight  mil 
lion  dollars  of  property,  and  was  only  put  down  at 
an  expense  of  six  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Since 
emancipation,  there  has  not  been  an  insurrection  of 
the  blacks  in  that  island ;  and  it  is  a  contradiction 
of  all  human  experience  to  assume,  that,  when  these 
people  are  emancipated,  they  will  turn  round  and 
cut  the  throats  of  their  former  masters.  If  the 
United  States  shall  lead  in  the  emancipation,  even 
at  the  head  of  the  army,  the  emancipated  population 
can  be  so  controlled  that  they  will  not  commit  those 


154  EMANCIPATION. 

excesses  which  have  characterized  conflicts  between 
the  oppressor  and  the  oppressed  in  other  countries 
and  other  ages. 

But  I  made  a  suggestion,  which  I  propose  now 
to  consider.  It  is,  that  if  we  do  not  emancipate 
the  slaves,  or  if  they  do  not  speedily  take  the 
matter  into  their  own  hands,  the  probability  is  that 
they  are  to  be  emancipated  by  the  rebels  them 
selves.  You  think,  possibly,  that  it  is  absurd  to 
suggest  that  when  they  have  involved  the  country 
in  war,  when  they  have  staked  every  thing  on  the 
institution  of  slavery,  they  should,  under  any  cir 
cumstances,  be  tempted  or  induced  to  destroy  it. 
But  have  you  considered  that  there  are  ten  thou 
sand  men  in  the  South,  in  civil  positions  and  in 
the  army,  who,  if  this  rebellion  be  put  down  and  the 
government  of  the  Union  re-established  over  the  re 
volted  States,  have  only  the  choice  between  hanging 
and  exile  ?  Do  you  believe,  when  you  remember  the 
sacrifices  they  have  already  made ;  when  you  con 
sider,  that,  on  the  coast  of  Carolina,  they  apply  the 
torch  to  their  own  property,  —  that,  in  the  extreme 
exigency  to  which  they  may  be  reduced  if  we  are 
successful  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  they  will 
not  emancipate  their  slaves,  and  claim  the  recog 
nition  of  Prance  and  England,  and  the  alliance  of 
foreign  governments,  which  alliance,  we  see,  will 
be  but  too  readily  accorded? 

My  friends,  I  have  not  been  startled  by  the  intel 
ligence  from  England  to-day,  because  I  have  seen 
that  we  were  drifting  steadily  and  certainly  to  a 
foreign  war  ;  and  nothing,  I  believe,  can  avert  that 
calamity  within  a  few  months,  except  emancipation 


EMANCIPATION.  155 

of  the  negroes  in  the  South,  so  that  we  can  say  to 
the  people  of  England,  to  the  people  of  France, 
If  you  make  war  against  us,  you  make  war  in  the 
interest  of  slavery.  I  believe,  although  I  was  edu 
cated  in  that  school  which  had  but  little  faith 
in  English  politics  or  in  the  political  principles  of 
Englishmen,  that,  if  we  write  emancipation  on  our 
banner,  there  is  yet  remaining  in  the  heart  of  the 
English  nation  virtue  enough  to  say  to  their  ruling 
classes,  whatever  their  desire  may  be,  and  to  the 
manufacturers,  whatever  their  exigencies  may  be, 
You  shall  not  interfere  to  re-establish  slavery  where 
it  has  been  struck  down.  I  believe,  also,  that  the 
French  nation,  which,  in  1778,  was  in  alliance  with 
us  ;  which  regarded  the  extremity  of  Greece  ;  which 
fought  for  an  idea  in  Italy,  and  restored  the  unity 
of  that  ancient  seat  of  power  and  of  majesty  in  the 
affairs  of  the  world,  —  I  believe  that  the  millions 
of  France  would  say  to  the  Emperor,  if  he  were 
otherwise  disposed,  This  is  a  war  in  which  we  can 
take  no  part.  By  emancipation,  we  shall  be  left  to 
ourselves  ;  but,  if  we  do  not  speedily  strike  a  blow 
somewhere — in  South  Carolina  or  Florida  or  Texas 
—  as  indicative  of  our  purpose,  I  see  not  any  way 
to  avert  a  foreign  war,  adding  untold  calamities 
to  the  difficulties  and  horrors  in  which  we  are  at 
this  moment  involved. 

Do  you  think  that  England  is  without  induce 
ments  ?  History  teaches  something.  She  has  her 
traditions  of  the  Revolution,  and  of  the  war  of  1812  ; 
her  governing  classes  -are  in  sympathy  with  the 
governing  classes  of  the  South ;  her  manufacturers 
desire  the  raw  material ;  her  merchants  now  urge 


156  EMANCIPATION. 

the  government  on,  and  guide  it,  too,  in  a  policy 
which  looks  either  to  the  restoration  of  the  Union 
or  to  separation,  and,  whatever  may  be  the  result, 
with  equal  sagacity.  They  see  very  plainly  that  here 
is  a  breach  between  the  North  and  South  that  can 
not  be  repaired  in  one  generation  ;  and  they  know, 
that,  when  the  war  closes,  they  will  have  the  sym 
pathy  of  the  South,  if  they  show  sympathy  to  the 
South  now.  They  expect  a  monopoly  of  the  trade 
of  the  South;  and  if  the  slaveholders  bear  sway 
when  peace  comes,  whether  it  come  by  union  or 
disunion,  that  monopoly  will  be  secured.  It  is  only 
by  a  reconstruction,  to  some  extent,  of  Southern 
society,  that  the  people  of  the  North  can  participate 
hereafter  in  the  trade  of  the  South. 

Then  there  is  a  feeling,  not  only  in  England,  but 
throughout  Europe,  that  we  are  advancing  too  rap 
idly.  Conscious  as  we  have  been,  boasting  as  we 
have  been,  it  is  possible  that,  after  all,  we  have  not 
estimated  the  prosperity  and  greatness  of  the  repub 
lic  as  it  has  been  estimated  abroad.  Extending 
from  the  great  lakes  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and 
the  Rio  Grande,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific ; 
covering  the  continent ;  threatening  Mexico  and 
Central  America  with  the  process  of  annexation, — 
they  cannot  look  otherwise  than  with  anxiety  and 
apprehension  upon  a  nation  which  promises  in  the 
course  of  the  present  century  to  contain  a  population 
of  one  hundred  million  of  freemen. 

Therefore  I  say,  in  reference  to  the  future,  that 
we  are  in  the  greatest  peril,  unless  we  place  the 
nation,  and  that  speedily,  in  a  position  where  we 
can  defend  ourselves  as  the  supporters  of  freedom, 


EMANCIPATION.  157 

and  appeal  to  the  yeomanry  of  England,  the  peas 
antry  of  France,  and  ask  them  to  keep  the  peace, 
while  we  restore  to  its  fair  proportions  a  govern 
ment  such  as  the  world  has  never  before  seen. 
Our  country  will  move  on  in  a  career  of  prosperity 
which  shall  know  no  limits  in  this  generation,  if  we 
escape  from  the  perils  in  which  we  are  involved  by 
slavery. 

Our  interest  and  our  duty  require  us  to  avert 
the  calamity  of  foreign  war  by  any  sacrifice,  save 
that  of  justice  and  honor. 

With  one  word  more,  my  friends,  I  leave  this  sub 
ject.  In  the  exigency  in  which  we  are  placed,  we 
must  support  the  government.  We  may  maintain 
our  opinions,  believing  that  in  due  time  those  opin 
ions  will  possess  influence ;  but  the  government, 
that  must  —  for  it  is  the  only  means  by  which  the 
rebellion  is  to  be  put  down  —  from  day  to  day,  with 
the  highest  wisdom  and  on  principles  of  established 
justice,  execute  all  the  requirements  and  provisions 
of  the  Constitution. 

This  contest  is  between  slavery  on  the  one  side, 
and  the  government  on  the  other.  Both  cannot 
stand.  Either  slavery  will  go  down  and  the  govern 
ment  remain,  or  the  government  will  be  destroyed 
and  slavery  triumph  over  us  all.  For  slavery  it  is 
that  we  have  made  our  sacrifices ;  for  slavery  it 
is  that  we  are  involved  in  these  troubles ;  for 
slavery  it  is  that  we  incur  these  expenditures ; 
for  slavery  it  is  that  manufactures  are  paralyzed; 
for  slavery  it  is  that  commerce  is  interrupted ;  for 
slavery  it  is  that  our  foreign  relations  are  dis 
turbed  ;  for  slavery  it  is  that  foreign  war  threatens 


158  EMANCIPATION. 

our  borders ;  for  slavery  it  is  that  free  institutions 
are  perilled  throughout  the  world,  and  among  all 
the  coming  generations  of  men.  Are  there  still 
further  sacrifices  demanded  for  the  institution  of 
slavery  ?  Remember  the  dead  that  have  fallen  in 
defence  of  the  country ;  remember  the  living  who 
are  perilled  on  the  battle-field  and  in  the  campjr 
remember  your  friends  who  have  gone  out  to  fight 
the  battles  of  the  republic ;  and  say  whether  you  can 
lie  upon  your  pillows,  and  feel  that  you  have  done 
your  duty  to  them,  to  your  country,  and  to  your 
God,  unless  you  exert  such  influences  as  you  can 
command  to  bring  to  a  speedy  termination  the 
cause  of  all  our  trials. 


159 


OUR  DANGER  AND  ITS   CAUSE. 

PUBLISHED    IN    THE    "CONTINENTAL    MONTHLY"    FOR    FEBRUARY, 

1862, 

IT  is  certain,  that,  when  this  page  comes  under  the 
eye  of  the  reader,  the  relations  of  the  United 
States,  both  foreign  and  domestic,  will  have  been 
changed  materially.  At  the  present  moment,  how 
ever,  the  condition  of  the  country  is  unpromising 
enough,  yet  not  so  gloomy  as  to  preclude  the  hope 
of  a  fortunate  issue.  The  sacrifices  and  sufferings 
of  the  people  are  greater  in  civil  than  in  foreign 
wars ;  and  the  ultimate  advantages  and  benefits  are 
proportionately  large.  We  speak  now  of  those  civil 
wars  which  have  occurred  between  people  inhabit 
ing  the  same  district  of  country,  —  as  the  civil 
wars  of  England.  Other  contests,  as  the  revolu 
tions  of  Hungary,  Poland,  and  Ireland  even,  were 
not,  strictly  speaking,  civil  wars.  The  parties 
were  of  different  origin,  and  had  never  assimilated 
in  language,  customs,  or  ideas.  The  struggle  was 
for  the  re-establishment  of  a  government  which  had 
once  existed,  and  not  for  the  reformation  or  change 
of  a  government  that,  at  the  moment  of  the  conflict, 
was  performing  its  ordinary  functions. 

The  civil  war  in  America  does  not  belong  to 
either  of  the  classes  named.  To  be  sure,  in  Mis 
souri,  Kentucky,  and  Western  Virginia,  the  contest 


160  OUR   DANGER  AND   ITS   CAUSE. 

has  been  between  the  inhabitants  of  the  several 
localities,  aided  by  forces  from  the  rebel  States 
on  the  one  hand,  and  forces  from  the  loyal  States  on 
the  other.  But  those  States,  as  such,  were  never 
committed  to  the  rebellion  ;  and  the  struggle  within 
their  limits  has  demonstrated  the  inability  of  the 
so-called  Confederate  States  to  command  the  ad 
hesion  of  Missouri,  Kentucky,  and  Western  Vir 
ginia  by  force ;  but  it  does  not,  in  the  accomplished 
results,  demonstrate  the  ability  of  the  United 
States  to  crush  the  rebellion.  The  border  States 
were  debatable  ground ;  but  the  question  has  been 
settled  in  favor  of  the  government,  as  far,  at  least, 
as  Western  Virginia  and  Missouri  are  concerned. 

In  the  eleven  seceded  States,  there  is  no  apparent 
difference  of  opinion  among  those  in  authority,  or 
among  those  accustomed  to  lead  in  public  affairs. 
The  sentiment  of  attachment  to  the  old  Union  has 
been  disappearing  rapidly  since  the  secession  of 
South  Carolina,  until  there  are  now  no  open  avow 
als  of  adherence  to  the  government,  unless  such 
are  made  by  the  mountaineers  of  Eastern  Tennes 
see  and  Western  North  Carolina.  These  men  are 
for  the  present  destitute  of  power.  Should  our 
armies  penetrate  those  regions,  the  inhabitants  may 
essentially  aid  in  the  re-establishment  of  the  govern 
ment.  For  the  time,  however,  we  must  regard  the 
eleven  States  as  a  unit  in  the  rebellion.  Thus  we 
are  called  to  note  the  anomalous  fact  that  the  rebels 
seek  a  division  between  a  people  who  speak  the 
same  language,  occupy  a  territory  which  has  no 
marked  lines  or  features  of  separation,  and  who 
have,  from  the  first  day  of  their  national  existence, 


OUR  DANGER  AND  ITS  CAUSE.  161 

been  represented  by  the  same  national  government. 
Hence  it  is  plain,  whatever  may  be  the  immediate 
result  of  the  contest,  that  there  can  be  no  per 
manent  peace  until  the  territory  claimed  as  the 
territory  of  the  United  States  is  again  subject  to 
one  government.  This  may  be  the  work  of  a  few 
months,  it  may  be  the  work  of  a  few  years,  or  it 
may  be  the  business  of  a  century.  Without  the 
re-establishment  of  the  government  over  the  whole 
territory  of  the  Union,  there  can  be  no  peace ;  and, 
without  the  re-establishment  of  that  government, 
there  can  be  no  prosperity. 

The  armies  of  the  rebel  States  will  march  to  the 
great  lakes,  or  the  armies  of  the  loyal  States  will 
march  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  We  are,  therefore, 
involved  in  a  war  which  does  not  admit  of  adjust 
ment  by  negotiation.  In  a  foreign  war,  peace  might 
be  secured  by  mutual  concessions,  and  preserved 
by  mutual  forbearance.  In  ordinary  civil  strife,  the 
peace  of  a  state  or  of  an  empire  might  be  restored 
by  concessions  to  the  disaffected,  by  a  limitation  of 
the  privileges  of  the  few,  or  an  extension  of  the 
rights  of  the  many.  But  none  of  these  expedients 
meet  the  exigency  in  which  we  find  ourselves.  The 
rebels  demand  the  overthrow  of  the  government, 
the  division  of  the  territory  of  the  Union,  the  de 
struction  of  the  nation.  The  question  is,  Shall  this 
nation  longer  exist  ?  And  why  is  the  question  forced 
upon  us  ?  Is  there  a  difference  of  language  ?  Not 
greater  than  is  found  in  single  States.  Indeed, 
Louisiana  is  the  only  one  of  the  eleven  where  any 
appreciable  difference  exists ;  and  the  number  of 
French  in  that  State  is  less  than  the  number 

11 


162  OUB  DANGER  AND  ITS   CAUSE. 

of  Germans  in  Pennsylvania.  Nor  has  nature 
indicated  lines  of  separation,  like  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  the  lakes  on  the  north,  and  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains  on  the  west.  The  lines  marked  by  nature  — 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  Mississippi  River,  and 
the  Alleghanies  —  cut  the  line  proposed  by  the 
Confederates  transversely,  and  force  the  suggestion 
that  each  section  will  be  put  in  possession  of  three 
halves  of  different  wholes,  instead  of  a  single  unit 
essential  to  permanent  national  existence. 

Do  the  products  of  the  industry  of  the  two 
sections  so  conflict  with  each  other  in  domestic  or 
foreign  markets  as  to  encourage  the  idea,  that,  by 
separation,  the  South  could  gain  in  this  particular  ? 
Not  in  the  least.  The  North  has  been  a  large 
customer  for  the  leading  staple  of  the  South;  and 
the  South  is  constantly  in  need  of  'those  articles 
which  the  North  is  fitted  to  produce.  The  South 
complains  of  the  growth  of  the  North,  and  vainly 
imagines,  that,  by  separation,  its  own  prosperity 
would  be  promoted.  The  answer  to  all  this  is, 
that  there  has  never  been  a  moment  for  fifty  years 
when  the  seceded  States  had  not  employment,  for 
all  the  labor  that  they  could  command,  in  vocations 
more  profitable  than  any  leading  industry  of  the 
North ;  and,  moreover,  every  industry  of  the  North 
has  been  open  to  the  free  competition  of  the  South. 
Not  argument,  only  statement,  is  needed  to  show, 
that  by  origin,  association,  language,  business,  and 
labor  interests,  as  well  as  by  geographical  laws, 
unity,  and  not  diversity,  is  the  necessity  of  our 
public  life.  Yet,  in  defiance  of  these  considera 
tions,  the  South  has  undertaken  the  task  of  de- 


OUR  DANGER  AND  ITS   CAUSE.  163 

stroying  the  government.  Nor  do  the  rebels  assert 
that  the  plan  of  government  is  essentially  defective. 
The  Montgomery  Constitution  is  modelled  upon  that 
of  the  United  States ;  though  the  leaders  no  longer 
disguise  their  purpose  to  abolish  its  democratic 
features,  and  incorporate  aristocratic  and  monarch 
ical  provisions.  They  hope,  also,  to  throw  off  the 
restraints  of  law,  bid  defiance  to  the  general  pub 
lic  sentiment  of  the  world,  and  re-open  the  trade 
in  slaves  from  Africa.  It  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  the  desire  of  England  for  cotton  and 
conquest,  and  her  sympathy  with  the  rebels,  will 
induce  her  to  pander  to  this  inhuman  traffic. 

It  has  happened  occasionally  that  a  government 
has  so  wielded  its  powers  as  to  contribute,  uncon 
sciously,  to  its  own  destruction.  But  our  experi 
ence  furnishes  the  first  instance  of  a  government 
having  been  seized  by  a  set  of  conspirators,  and 
its  vast  powers  used  for  its  own  overthrow. 

It  is  now  accredited  generally  that  several  mem 
bers  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  Cabinet  were  conspirators, 
and  that  they  used  the  power  confided  to  them  for 
the  purpose  of  destroying  the  government  itself. 
Hence  it  appears,  whatever  the  test  applied,  that 
tne  present  rebellion  is  distinguished  from  all 
others  in  the  fact  that  it  does  not  depend  upon 
any  of  the  causes  on  which  national  dissensions 
usually  have  been  based. 

The  public  discontents  in  Ireland,  in  their  causes, 
bore  a  slight  analogy  to  our  own.  There  were 
existing  in  that  country  various  systems  and  cus 
toms  that  were  prejudicial  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
island.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the  en- 


164  OUR   DANGER   AND   ITS   CAUSE. 

cumbered  estates  and  absenteeism ;  and  it  is  wor 
thy  of  remark  that  whatever  has  been  done  by  the 
British  government  for  the  promotion  of  the  pros 
perity  of  Ireland,  and  the  pacification  of  its  people, 
has  been  by  a  reformation  of  the  institutions  of  the 
country. 

Rebels  in  arms  may  be  overthrown  and  dispersed 
by  superior  force ;  but  the  danger  of  rebellion  will 
continue  so  long  as  the  disposition  to  rebel  animates 
the  people.  This  disposition  cannot  be  reached  by 
military  power  merely :  the  exciting  cause  must  be 
removed,  or,  at  least,  so  limited  and  modified  as  to 
impair  its  influence  as  a  disturbing  force  in  the 
policy  of  the  country.  As  we  have  failed  to  trace 
this  rebellion  to  any  of  the  causes  that  have  led  to 
civil  disturbances  in  other  countries,  it  only  re 
mains  to  suggest  that  cause  which,  in  its  relations 
and  conditions,  is  peculiar  to  the  United  States. 
All  are  agreed  that  slavery  is  the  cause  of  the 
rebellion.  Yet  slavery  exists  in  other  countries, — 
as  Brazil,  for  example,  —  and  thus  far  without 
exhibiting  its  malign  influence  in  conspiracy  and 
rebellion.  This  is  no  doubt  true ;  but  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind,  that,  in  the  United  States,  slavery 
has  power  in  the  government  as  the  basis  of  repre 
sentation,  and  that  the  slave  States  are  associated 
in  the  government  with  free  States.  If  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery  had  not  been  a  basis  of  political 
power,  or  had  all  the  States  maintained  slavery,  it 
is  probable  that  the  rebellion  would  never  have 
been  organized,  or,  if  organized,  it  could  never  have 
attained  its  present  gigantic  proportions. 

We  have  now  reached  a  point  where  we  can  see 


OUR  DANGER  AND   ITS   CAUSE.  165 

the  error  of  our  public  national  life.     The  doctrine 
announced  by  President  Lincoln,  while  he  was  only 
Mr.  Lincoln  of  Springfield,  that  the  nation  must  be 
all  free  or  all  slave,  was  not  new  with  him.     The 
men  who  framed  the  Constitution  acted  under  the 
same  idea,  though  they  may  not  have  expressed 
the  truth  so  distinctly.     There  is,  however,  abun 
dant  circumstantial  evidence  that  they  so  believed, 
and  that  their  only  hope  for  the  country  was  based 
on  the  then  reasonable  expectation  that  slavery  would 
disappear,  and  that  the  nation  would  be  all   free. 
It  was  reserved  for  modern  political  alchemists  to 
discover  the  idea,  on  which  the  leading  politicians 
have  been  acting  for  thirty  or  forty  years,  that  one- 
half  of  a  nation  might  believe  in  the  fundamental 
principle  on  which   the  government  is  based,  and 
the  other  half  deny  it,  and  yet  the  government  go 
on  harmoniously   wielding  its    powers   acceptably 
and  safely  to  all.     This  is  the  error.     Our  failure 
is  not  in  the  plan  of  government ;  the  error  is  not 
that  our  fathers  supposed  that  a  government  could 
be  based  and  permanently  sustained  upon  slavery 
and  freedom  advancing  pari  passu.     They  indulged 
in  no  such  delusion.     The  error  is  modern.     When 
slavery  demanded  concessions,  and  freedom  yielded  ; 
when  slavery  suggested  compromises,  and  freedom 
accepted  them ;  when  slavery,  unrebuked,  claimed 
equal  rights  under  the  Constitution,  and  freedom 
acknowledged    the    justice    of    the    claim,  —  then 
came  the  test  whether  the  government  itself  should 
be   administered  in  the   service   of  slavery  or  in 
behalf  of  freedom.     Two  considerations  influenced 
the  slaveholders.     First,  even  should  they  be  per- 


166  OUR  DANGER  AND   ITS   CAUSE. 

mitted  to  wield  the  government,  they  foresaw  that 
its  provisions  were  inadequate  to  meet  the  exigen 
cies  of  slavery.  No  despotism  can  be  sustained  by 
the  voluntary  efforts  of  its  subjects.  Slavery  is  a 
despotism,  and,  as  such,  can  be  supported  only  by 
power  independent  of  that  of  the  slaves  themselves, 
and  always  sufficient  for  their  control.  The  slaves 
were  yearly  increasing  in  numbers,  and  gaining  in 
knowledge.  These  changes  indicated  the  near  ap 
proach  of  the  time  when  the  slaves  of  the  South  would 
re-enact  the  scenes  of  St.  Domingo.  The  planta 
tions  of  the  cotton  region  are  remote  from  each 
other;  and  the  proportion  of  slaves  on  a  single 
plantation  is  often  as  many  as  fifty  for  every  free 
person.  The  sale  of  negroes  from  the  northern 
slave  States  has  introduced  an  element  upon  the 
plantations  at  once  intelligent  and  hostile,  and,  of 
course,  dangerous.  The  time  must  come  when  the 
white  population  of  plantations,  districts,  or  States 
even,  would  disappear  in  a  single  night.  In  such 
a  moment  of  terror  and  massacre,  how,  and  to  what 
extent,  would  the  United-States  Government,  acting 
under  the  Constitution,  afford  protection,  aid,  or 
even  secure  a  barren  vengeance  ?  These  were 
grave  questions,  and  admitted  only  of  an  unsatis 
factory  answer  at  best.  The  government  has  power 
to  put  down  insurrections  ;  but  for  what  good  would 
a  body  of  troops  be  marched  to  a  scene  of  desola 
tion  and  blood  a  fortnight  or  a  month  after  the 
servile  outbreak  had  done  its  work  ?  These  con 
siderations  controlled  the  intelligent  minds  of  the 
South,  and  they  were  driven  irresistibly  to  the  con 
clusion  that  the  government  of  the  United  States 


OUR  DANGER  AND  ITS   CAUSE.  167 

was  insufficient  for  the  institution  of  slavery,  even 
though  the  friends  of  slavery  were  intrusted  with 
the  administration.  What  hope  beyond?  They 
dared  to  believe,  that,  by  separation  and  the  es 
tablishment  of  a  military  slaveholding  oligarchy, 
to  which  the  public  opinion  and  public  policy  of 
the  seceded  States  now  tend,  they  would  be  able  to 
guard  the  institution  against  all  tumults  from 
within  and  all  attacks  from  without. 

If,  however,  success  were  to  crown  their  present 
undertakings,  is  it  probable  that  the  government 
contemplated  would  be  strong  enough  for  the  task 
proposed  ?  If  Russia  could  not  hold  her  serfs  in 
bondage,  can  the  South  set  up  a  government  which 
can  guard  and  defend  and  secure  slavery  ?  Or  will 
a  French  or  English  protectorate  render  that  stable 
which  the  government  of  the  United  States  was 
incompetent  to  uphold?  These  questions  remain; 
but  the  one  first  suggested  is  settled,  —  that  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  howsoever  and  by 
whomsoever  administered,  constitutionally,  is  inade 
quate  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  slavery. 

Secondly,  the  leaders  of  the  rebellion  foresaw, 
a  long  time  since,  that  they  had  no  security  that 
the  government  would  be  administered  in  the  inter 
est  of  slavery.  The  admission  of  California,  fol 
lowed  by  the  admission  of  three  other  free  States, 
forced  the  slaveholders  into  a  hopeless  minority  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  The  census  of 
1860  promised  to  reduce  the  delegation  of  the  slave 
States  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  Previous 
to  1870,  other  free  States  were  likely  to  be  admitted 
into  the  Union ;  and  thus,  by  successive  and  una- 


168  OUR   DANGER   AND   ITS   CAUSE. 

voidable  events,  the  government  was  sure  to  pass 
into  the  hands  of  the  non-slave  States.  It  would 
not  be  just  to  the  South  to  omit  to  say  that  appre 
hensions  there  existed  that  the  North  would  disre 
gard  the  Constitution.  These  apprehensions  were 
fostered  for  unholy  purposes ;  and  so  sealed  is  the 
South  to  the  progress  of  truth,  through  the"  domi 
nation  of  the  slaveholders  over  the  press  and  public 
men,  and  by  the  consequent  ignorance  of  the  mass 
of  the  people,  that  these  misapprehensions  have 
never  been  removed  in  any  degree  by  the  declara 
tions  of  Congress  or  of  political  parties  in  the 
North. 

The  mind  of  the  South  was  thus  brought  logically 
to  two  conclusions :  first,  that  the  government  of 
the  United  States  was  inadequate  to  meet  the 
exigencies  of  slavery,  even  though  it  should  be 
administered  uniformly  by  the  friends  of  slavery ; 
secondly,  that  the  administration  of  the  govern 
ment  would  be  controlled  by  the  ideas  of  the  free 
States. 

These  conclusions  would  have  been  sufficiently 
unwelcome  to  the  Southern  leaders,  if  they  had 
had  no  purpose  or  policy  beyond  the  maintenance 
of  slavery  where  it  exists ;  but  they  had  already 
determined  to  extend  the  institution  southward 
over  Mexico  and  Central  America,  and  they  knew 
full  well  the  necessity  of  destroying  the  Union  and 
the  government  before  such  an  enterprise  could  be 
undertaken  with  any  hope  of  success.  Hence  they 
denied  the  right  of  the  majority  to  rule,  unless  they 
ruled  in  obedience  to  the  will  of  the  minority. 
Thus  the  slaveholders  came  naturally  and  unavoid- 


OUR   DANGER   AND   ITS   CAUSE.  169 

ably  to  the  denial  of  the  fundamental  principle  of 
the  government ;  and,  having  denied  the  principle, 
there  remained  no  reason  why  they  should  not 
undertake  the  overthrow  of  the  government  itself. 
And  thus  the  conspiracy  and  the  rebellion  sprung 
naturally  and  unavoidably  from  the  institution  of 
slavery. 

Further,  slavery  is  the  support  of  the  conspiracy 
and  the  rebellion,  both  in  Europe  and  America. 
However  disastrous  slavery  may  be  to  the  mass 
of  the  whites,  it  affords  to  the  governing  class 
the  opportunity  and  means  for  constant  attention 
to  public  affairs. 

In  all  our  history,  the  North  has  felt  the  force 
of  this  advantage.  As  a  general  thing,  a  Northern 
member  occupies  a  seat  in  Congress  for  one  or  two 
terms,  and  then  his  place  is  taken  by  an  untried 
man.  And,  even  during  his  term  of  service,  his 
attention  is  given  in  part  to  his  private  affairs,  or 
to  plans  and  schemes  designed  to  secure  a  re-elec 
tion.  The  Southern  member  takes  his  seat  with 
a  conscious  independence,  due  to  the  fact  that  his 
slaves  are  making  crops  upon  his  plantation,  and 
that  his  re-election  does  not  depend  upon  the  hot 
breath  of  the  multitude.  He  enjoys  a  long  and  in 
dependent  experience  in  the  public  service ;  and 
he  thus  acquires  a  power  to  serve  his  party,  his 
country,  or  his  section,  which  is  disproportionate 
even  to  his  experience.  A  good  deal  of  the  con 
sideration  which  the  South  enjoys  abroad,  and 
especially  in  England,  is  due  to  the  fact,  that,  in 
the  South,  a  governing  class  is  recognized,  which 
corresponds  to  the  governing  classes  wherever  an 


170  OUR  DANGER  AND   ITS   CAUSE. 

aristocracy  or  monarchism  exists.  By  a  commu 
nity  of  ideas,  the  South  commands  the  sympathy, 
and  enjoys  the  confidence  and  secret  support,  of 
the  enemies  of  democracy  the  world  over.  Through 
the  political  and  pecuniary  support  which  the  pub 
lic  men  of  that  section  have  derived  from  slavery, 
they  have  been  able  to  take  and  maintain  social 
positions  at  Washington,  which,  by  circumstances, 
were  denied  to  much  the  larger  number  of  Northern 
representatives ;  and  thus  they  have  influenced  the 
politics  of  this  country  and  the  opinions  of  other 
nations.  Consider  by  how  many  sympathies  and 
interests  England  is  bound  to  encourage  the  policy 
and  promote  the  fortunes  of  the  South.  There 
is  the  sympathy  of  the  governing  class  in  England 
for  the  governing  class  in  the  South,  even  though 
they  are  slaveholders ;  there  is  the  hostility  of  the 
ignorant  operatives  in  their  manufacturing  towns, 
who,  through  exterior  influences,  have  been  led  to 
believe  that  whatever  hardships  they  are  brought 
to  endure  are  caused  by  the  desire  of  the  North 
to  subjugate  the  South ;  there  is  the  purpose  of 
English  merchants  and  manufacturers  to  cripple, 
or,  if  possible,  to  destroy  the  manufactures  and 
commerce  of  the  North ;  and,  finally,  there  is  the 
hope  of  all  classes,  that,  by  the  alienation  or  sepa 
ration  of  the  two  sections,  England  will  derive  addi 
tional  commercial  advantages,  and  that  the  scheme 
of  here  establishing  a  continental  republic  will  be 
abandoned,  never  to  be  again  revived.  There  is, 
moreover,  a  reasonable  expectation  founded  in  the 
nature  of  things,  and  possibly  already  supported 
by  positive  promises  and  pledges,  that  England  is 


OUR   DANGER   AND   ITS   CAUSE.  171 

to  stand  in  the  relation  of  protector  to  the  Confeder 
ated  States.  Nor  will  she  be  disturbed  in  the  least 
by  the  institution  of  slavery,  if  perchance  that 
institution  survives  the  struggle.  If  she  can  be 
secure  in  the  monopoly  of  the  best  cotton  lands  on 
the  globe;  if  she  can  be  manufacturer  and  shop 
keeper  for  the  South ;  if  she  can  deprive  the  North 
of  one-half  of  its  legitimate  commerce ;  if  she  can 
obtain  the  control  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi;  if  she  can  command  the 
line  of  seacoast  from  Galveston  to  Fortress  Monroe, 
or  even  to  Charleston,  and  thus  compel  us  to  make 
our  way  to  the  Pacific  by  the  passes  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  exclusively,  —  there  is  no  sacrifice  of 
men  or  of  money  or  of  principle  or  of  justice 
that  would  be  deemed  too  great  by  the  English 
people  and  government.  But  what  then  ?  Are  we 
to  make  war  upon  England  because  her  sympathies 
and  interests  run  thus  with  the  South  ?  Is  it  not 
wiser  to  consider  why  it  is  that  the  South  is  sus 
tained  by  the  interests  and  sympathies  of  England  ? 
If  slavery  for  fifty  years  had  been  unknown  among 
us,  could  there  be  found  a  hundred  men,  within 
the  limits  of  the  United  States,  who  would  accept  a 
British  protectorate  under  any  circumstances  or  for 
any  purpose  whatever  ?  And  is  it  not  therein  mani 
fest  that  our  foreign  and  domestic  perils  are  alike 
due  to  slavery?  And  shall  we  not  have  dealt 
successfully  with  all  our  foreign  difficulties,  when 
we  shall  have  established  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States  over  the  territory  claimed  by  the  reb 
els?  But,  until  that  happy  day  arrives,  we  shall 
not  be  relieved  for  an  instant  from  the  danger  of 


172  OUR  DANGER  AND  ITS   CAUSE. 

a  foreign  war ;  and,  if  the  rebellion  last  six  months 
longer,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  a  foreign 
war  can  be  averted.  When  we  offer  so  tempting  a 
prize  to  nations  that  wish  us  ill,  can  we  expect 
them  to  put  aside  the  opportunity  which  we  have  not 
the  courage  and  ability  to  master  ?  We  have  ob 
served  the  hot  haste  of  England  to  recognize  the 
rebels  as  belligerents ;  we  have  seen  the  flimsy 
covering  of  neutrality  that  she  has  thrown  over  the 
illegitimate  commerce  that  her  citizens  have  carried 
on  with  the  South  ;  and  from  the  time,  manner,  and 
nature  of  her  demand  for  the  release  of  Mason 
and  Slidell,  we  are  forced  to  infer  that  she  will  seize 
every  opportunity  to  bring  about  an  open  rupture 
with  the  United  States.  And,  though  Mr.  Seward 
has  carried  the  country  successfully  through  the  dif 
ficulty  of  the  "  Trent,'*  we  ought  to  expect  the 
presentation  of  demands  which  we  cannot  so  read 
ily  and  justly  meet.  Indeed,  enough  is  known  of 
the  Mexican  question  to  suggest  the  most  serious 
apprehensions  of  foreign  war  on  that  account. 

The  necessity  for  speedily  crushing  the  rebellion 
is  as  strong  as  it  was  at  the  moment  when  Lord 
Lyons  made  the  demand  for  the  release  of  the 
persons  taken  from  the  deck  of  the  "  Trent." 

Is  there  any  reason,  even  the  slightest,  to  sup 
pose,  that,  by  military  and  naval  means  alone,  the 
'rebellion  can  be  crushed  by  the  19th  of  April  next? 

Yet  every  day's  delay  gives  the  Confederate 
States  additional  strength,  and  renders  them,  in  the 
estimation  of  mankind,  more  and  more  worthy 
of  recognition  and  independent  government.  Their 
recognition  will  be  followed  by  treaties  of  friendship 


OUR   DANGER   AND   ITS   CAUSE.  173 

and  alliance ;  and  those  treaties  will  give  strength 
to  the  rebels,  and  increase  the  embarrassments  of 
our  own  government.  It  is  the  necessity  of  our 
national  life  that  the  settlement  of  this  question 
should  not  be  much  longer  postponed. 

By  some  means  we  must  satisfy  the  world,  and 
that  speedily,  that  the  rebellion  is  a  failure.  Nor 
can  we  much  longer  tender  declarations  of  what 
we  intend  to  do,  or  offer  promises  as  to  what  we 
will  do,  in  the  face  of  the  great  fact,  that,  for  eight 
months,  the  capital  of  the  republic  has  been  in  a 
state  of  siege.  If,  in  these  circumstances  of  neces 
sity  and  peril  to  us,  the  armies  of  the  rebels  be 
not  speedily  dispersed,  and  the  leaders  of  the  rebel 
lion  rendered  desperate,  will  the  government  allow 
the  earth  to  again  receive  seed  from  the  hand  of  the 
slave  under  the  dictation  of  the  master,  and  for 
the  support  of  the  enemies  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union  ?  If  there  were  any  probability  that  the 
States  would  return  to  their  allegiance,  then,  indeed, 
we  might  choose  to  add  to  our  own  burdens  rather 
than  interfere  with  their  internal  affairs.  But  there 
is  no  hope  whatever  that  the  seceded  States  will 
return  voluntarily  to  the  Union. 

There  could  be  no  justifying  cause  for  the  eman 
cipation  of  the  slaves  in  time  of  peace  by  the  action 
of  the  general  government ;  and  now  it  must  be 
demanded  and  defended  as  the  means  by  which  the 
war  is  to  be  closed,  and  a  permanent  peace  secured. 
If,  before  the  return  of  seed-time,  the  emancipation 
of  the  slaves  in  several  or  in  all  of  the  disloyal 
States  be  declared  as  a  military  necessity,  and  the 
blacks  be  invited  to  the  seacoast  where  we  have 


174  OUR  DANGER  AND  ITS   CAUSE. 

and  may  have  possession,  they  will  raise  supplies 
for  themselves,  and  the  rebellion  will  come  to  an 
ignominious  end,  through  the  inability  of  the  mas 
ters,  when  deprived  of  the  services  of  their  slaves, 
to  procure  the  means  of  carrying  on  the  war. 


175 


TREASON  THE  FRUIT  OP  SLAVERY. 

A  SPEECH    DELIVERED    AT   A  MASS  MEETING    HELD  IN   THE  CAPI 
TOL  GROUNDS,   WASHINGTON,  JULY,   1862. 


ENTLEMEN,  —  I  am  a  stranger  to  you,  and  I 
do  not  know  any  good  reason  why  your  com 
mittee  of  arrangements  should  have  undertaken  to 
introduce  an  acquaintance  between  us.  I  am  sure 
you,  upon  your  part,  will  regret  it,  however  I  may 
regard  it.  I  may  as  well  tell  you  where  I  am  from, 
—  from  Massachusetts.  What  we  propose  in  that 
State  is  to  carry  on  this  war,  in  sunshine  and  storm, 
against  all  odds,  on  this  side  of  the  water  or  the 
other.  We  rally  under  the  national  banner,  not 
for  this  generation  alone  or  for  this  century,  but 
for  all  generations  and  for  all  centuries.  And,  for 
ourselves,  we  mean  to  offer  the  last  man,  the  last 
dollar,  and  the  last  hour's  labor  of  the  last  citizen 
of  our  Commonwealth,  ere  these  rebels,  with  trea 
son  on  their  lips  and  treason  in  their  hearts,  shall 
accomplish  that  which  they  have  undertaken.  If 
to-night  there  shall  come  news  of  disaster,  I  know, 
that,  in  the  Commonwealth  to  which  I  belong,  every 
heart  will  be  nerved  for  renewed  efforts  in  the  cause 
of  liberty  and  humanity.  My  friend,  Mr.  Chitten- 
den,  says  he  proposes  to  ferret  out  traitors.  I 
propose  to  go  one  step  further,  and  ask  you  why 
there  is  treason,  as,  without  treason,  there  could  be 


176      TREASON  THE  FRUIT  OF  SLAVERY. 

no  traitors.  Speaking  for  the  first  time  in  the  free, 
open  air  in  the  city  of  Washington,  which  bears 
the  name  of  the  Father  of  my  Country,  I  will  pro 
nounce  the  words :  If  it  had  not  been  for  slavery, 
there  would  have  been  no  treason ;  and,  when 
slavery  shall  cease  to  exist,  there  will  be  no  traitors. 
That  is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  this  war, — 
slavery  in  the  beginning,  freedom  in  the  end. 
There  is  no  other  solution  of  the  difficulty ;  and 
as  an  American  citizen,  with  all  the  responsibili 
ties  resting  upon  me,  treasuring  as  I  do  the  memo 
ries  and  traditions  of  the  past,  I  proclaim  here  that 
there  can  be  no  peace,  until,  from  the  length  and 
breadth  of  this  republic,  the  cry  shall  go  up, 
"  Slavery,  slavery,  has  ceased."  How  and  when  ? 
These  are  questions  that  we  submit  to  the  Presi 
dent,  in  whom  we  confide,  and  his  Cabinet ;  but  I 
believe  this,  —  that  the  faster  he  and  they  march 
on  towards  the  conclusion  when  slavery  shall  have 
ceased  to  exist,  just  to  that  extent  they  will  merit 
the  reward  and  gratitude  of  their  countrymen  and 
all  mankind. 

My  friends,  I  see  here  laborers,  —  men  who  with 
their  bones  and  sinews  are  to  carry  on  this  war.  I 
have  heard  that  in  the  city  of  Brooklyn,  day  before 
yesterday,  there  was  a  riot  between  the  free  white 
laborers  and  the  colored  men ;  so  also  there  have 
been  conflicts  in  Cincinnati  and  elsewhere  through 
the  North.  What  is  the  solution  of  this  difficulty 
between  the  white  and  colored  races  of  the  North  ? 
Freedom  to  the  blacks.  Then  will  they  go  from 
the  North  to  the  free  Territories  of  the  South,  to 
which  by  nature  they  belong.  You  should  have 


TREASON   THE   FRUIT   OF   SLAVERY.  177 

made  South  Carolina  and  Florida  free ;  and  I 
would  praise  God  with  gratitude,  such  as  has  never 
swelled  my  heart,  if  to-night  I  could  hear,  by  the 
President's  proclamation,  that  South  Carolina  and 
Florida  were  free,  and  dedicated  to  the  black  popu 
lation  of  this  country.  Then  competition  with 
the  white  laborers  of  the  North  would  cease.  The 
negroes  would  go  to  the  cotton-fields  and  the  rice- 
plantations  of  the  South  that  invite  them,  leaving 
to  the  white  people  of  the  North  entire  freedom 
from  competition  in  labor.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  are  some  who  say,  reconstruct  the  old  Union, 
with  the  eleven  seceded  States  introduced  anew, 
without  the  abolition  of  slavery.  What,  think  you, 
would  then  happen?  Will  the  slaves  remain  in 
the  South  ?  No ;  but  they  will  escape  by  hundreds 
and  millions  to  the  North,  and  come  into  compe 
tition  with  the  free  laborers  there.  You  cannot 
doubt  this.  Will  you  return  them  to  their  mas 
ters?  Certainly  not.  Humanity  is  against  it; 
justice  is  against  it;  expediency  is  against  it. 

I  have  been  in  Cairo,  111.,  where  I  was  told 
that  the  people  were  nearly  all  secessionists  six 
months  ago.  Negroes  ran  away,  and  came  there, 
and  the  secessionists  and  authorities  and  citizens 
could  not  carry  those  people  back.  You  have  then 
to  take  the  choice, — abolish  slavery  in  these  seceded 
States,  give  the  negroes  a  home  there",  and  carry 
them  out  of  the  North  by  the  mild  power  of  per 
suasion,  or  else  allow  the  North  to  be  overrun  by 
escaped  fugitives  from  the  South.  Give  them  a 
home  on  territory  which  they  and  you  have  fought 
for,  in  the  coast  region  of  the  South,  and  give  us 

12 


178      TREASON  THE  FRUIT  OF  SLAVERY. 

the  North  for  the  free  white  population  of  the 
North.  Therefore  u  I  say,  my  friends,  that  this 
doctrine  of  emancipation  in  the  eleven  seceded 
States  —  immediate,  unconditional,  universal  —  is 
the  solution  of  the  difficulty  of  the  war,  and  conse 
quently  the  conclusion  of  peace.  What  I  have  said 
has  been  based  upon  the  wise  and  just  proposition 
of  the  President,  that,  in  the  loyal  States,  compensa 
tion  shall  be  made  to  loyal  masters.  I  would  go 
still  further.  If  in  these  eleven  seceded  States 
you  can  find  men,  slave-owners,  who  have  done, 
under  the  circumstances,  all  that  could  be  reason 
ably  expected,  I  would  compensate  them  also.  But 
never,  with  my  consent,  shall  the  treasury  of  this 
country  be  opened  to  compensate  rebels  for  the  loss 
of  their  slaves. 

I  wish  to  leave  with  you  in  the  end  the  words 
offered  in  the  beginning.  They  are  these  :  Without 
slavery,  there  would  have  been  no  treason ;  and,  with 
out  treason,  there  would  have  been  no  traitors,  no 
war.  Upon  slavery  the  responsibility  lies  for  this 
enormous  waste  and  outlay  of  men  and  money. 
Over  the  whole  North,  there  are  mourning  homes 
and  desolate  hearth -stones,  aged  parents  stricken 
down  with  sorrow,  grief  penetrating  young  hearts. 
All  is  chargeable  to  this  foul  and  infamous  institu 
tion  of  human  slavery;  and,  if  there  be  a  God  in 
heaven,  and»if  he  be  just,  as  we  believe,  we  cannot 
imagine,  with  the  instincts  and  perceptions  we  have, 
that  he  should  ever  look  with  favor  upon  a  people 
twenty  million  strong,  struggling,  in  their  first  faith, 
to  compel  five  million  of  rebel  slaveholders  and 
their  associates  in  the  South  to  be  true  to  the  flag 


TREASON   THE   FRUIT   OF   SLAVERY.  179 

and  Constitution,  and,  at  the  same  time,  struggling 
to  compel  four  million  of  slaves  to  be  true  to  their 
rebel  masters.  It  is  a  greater  work  than  you  can 
accomplish.  There  is  no  power  upon  earth  equal 
to  the  undertaking.  These  men  of  the  South, 
instigators  of  the  rebellion,  controlling  this  country 
through  the  administrations  of  Franklin  Pierce 
and  James  Buchanan  for  eight  years,  did  not  aban 
don  the  government  until  the  government  was 
shown  to  be  inadequate  to  maintain  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery.  They  stood  by  the  government 
as  long  as  the  government  was  strong  enough  to 
maintain  this  institution.  What  do  the  people  of 
the  North  propose  to  have  this  administration  do  ? 
Put  down  the  rebellion,  of  course.  Either  slavery 
must  die,  or  the  government  is  at  an  end.  The 
time  has  come  when  men  of  all  minds  and  condi 
tions  must  take  their  choice  whether  these  United 
States  shall  be  sustained  and  slavery  driven  out,  or 
otherwise.  Slavery  will  last  as  long  as  the  war, 
and  the  war  as  long  as  slavery.  It  is  your  duty  to 
take  slavery  by  the  throat,  and  destroy  it. 

One  word  more.  I  belonged  to  the  old  Demo 
cratic  party.  It  was  a  party  of  courage,  from  the 
time  of  General  Jackson  to  the  administration  of 
Franklin  Pierce  ;  and  the  country  should  now  bor 
row  a  lesson  of  courage  from  that  party.  Let  the 
truth  be  declared  with  courage  and  determination, 
and  slavery  shall  then  cease,  and  this  war  shall  end. 
Let  the  war-cry  be,  "  Slavery  shall  cease,  slavery 
shall  cease!" 


180 


GENERAL  WADSWORTH  AND  THE  NEW- 
YORK  ELECTION  OF  1862. 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  WASHINGTON  CITY,  SEPT.  27,  1862,  AT  A 
MEETING  CALLED  TO  RESPOND  TO  THE  NOMINATION  OF  GEN 
ERAL  WADSWORTH  FOR  GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  YORK. 

I  MEET  you  to-night,  gentlemen,  that  I  may,  with 
you,  express  the  satisfaction  which  we  feel  that 
the  great  State  of  New  York,  in  the  nomination  she 
has  made  of  General  Wadsworth  for  the  highest 
office  in  her  gift,  has  already  indicated  her  purpose 
to  maintain  the  Constitution,  and  to  re-establish  the 
authority  of  this  government  over  the  States  which 
to-day  deny  it.  I  come,  too,  that  I  may  express 
my  belief,  founded  on  an  acquaintance  somewhat  in 
timate,  though  of  short  duration,  that  he  whom  the 
people  of  New  York  are  to  elect  to  the  chief-magis 
tracy  is  a  man  worthy  in  all  respects  of  the  suf 
frages  of  the  people  of  that  great  State,  and  of  the 
confidence  of  the  country. 

This  is  a  time,  gentlemen,  when  neither  in  civil 
life  nor  in  the  conduct  of  armies  in  the  field  is  it 
safe  to  trust  to  men  who  lack  earnestness  in  the  dis 
charge  of  the  duties  to  which  they  are  called.  It  is 
the  duty  of  all  men  who  participate  in  the  adminis 
tration  of  public  affairs  —  and  its  performance  is  due 
to  themselves,  to  their  country,  and  to  Heaven  —  to 
abandon  the  positions  they  hold,  if  they  do  not  be 
lieve,  earnestly,  fully,  and  without  wavering,  in  the 
great  cause  to  which  the  people  of  this  country  are 
devoted.  That  cause  is  the  maintenance,  on  this  soil, 


GENERAL   WADSWORTH,   ETC.  181 

of  the  principles  of  freedom,  regardless  of  color  or 
country  or  race.  We  acknowledge  in  the  govern 
ment  which  we  set  up,  and  in  the  rights  which  we 
recognize  in  all  men,  that  he  who  has  been  created 
by  his  Maker  in  the  image  of  his  Maker  is  entitled  to 
equal  rights  as  a  man  and  a  citizen.  It  is  the  denial 
of  the  great  right  of  human  equality  before  the  law 
that  has  compelled  us  to  taste  of  this  cup  of  humili 
ation.  Yea,  it  is  that  denial  which  forces  us  to 
drink  of  the  cup  to  the  very  dregs ;  and  it  is  only 
through  this  humiliation  that  we  can  pass  to  that 
triumphant  glory,  as  a  people,  when  it  shall  be  de 
clared  in  the  face  of  despots,  on  this  continent  and 
on  the  other,  that  all  whom  God  has  created  are 
free,  are  equal  before  the  law. 

There  is  a  belief  in  some  quarters  that  republi 
can  institutions  on  this  continent  have  failed.  The 
despots  of  Europe  are  elated  with  the  hope  that  that 
which  they  have  prophesied  is  to  be  fulfilled  in  the 
failure  of  republican  institutions  in  America. 

Gentlemen,  republican  institutions  have  not  failed. 
They  are,  indeed,  put  to  a  severe  trial  in  these  days  ; 
but  they  have  not  failed.  There  has  been,  however, 
a  failure  on  this  continent  and  in  our  affairs ;  and 
we  may  wisely  consider  how  arid  in  what  we  have 
failed.  Simply  in  this,  —  in  the  attempt,  not  made 
by  the  framers  of  the  government,  but  by  men 
thirty  and  forty  years  ago,  who  had  then  already 
abandoned  the  principles  of  freedom,  to  set  up 
and  perpetuate  a  government  half  slave  and  half 
free.  That  attempt  has  failed.  Washington,  Jeffer 
son,  Madison,  and  their  associates  had  no  faith  in 
such  a  government ;  and  the  government  which  they 


182  GENERAL   WADSWORTH   AND   THE 

set  up  was  not  of  that  character.  They  knew  that 
slavery  existed ;  but  they  did  not  believe  that  a  gov 
ernment  founded  on  slavery  and  freedom  could 
stand,  and  they  made  no  attempt  to  found  such  a 
government. 

What  was  their  belief  ?  It  was  this :  that  slavery 
was  an  evil,  that  it  was  temporary,  that  it  was  pass 
ing  away.  They  believed  that  freedom  was  perma 
nent,  that  freedom  was  aggressive,  that  it  was  to 
so  continue ;  and,  if  this  belief  had  controlled  the 
heart  and  minds  of  the  people  of  the  South,  slavery 
would  have  passed  away,  the  rebellion  would  not 
have  come,  and  the  war  and  its  scenes  would  have 
been  omitted  in  the  history  of  this  republic ;  but, 
thirty  or  forty  years  since,  there  appeared  a  class  of 
men  in  the  South  who  attempted  to  set  up  the  op 
posite  doctrine,  —  that  freedom  was  temporary,  that 
it  was  limited,  and  that  it  was  to  disappear.  They 
maintained,  that  slavery  was  a  good,  that  slavery  was 
permanent,  that  it  was  to  be  aggressive,  and  that 
finally,  on  this  continent  and  in  this  government,  it 
would  be  supreme.  The  failure  is  in  the  attempt 
of  men  who  had  already  abandoned  the  doctrines  of 
republicanism,  to  establish,  within  the  forms  of  the 
Constitution,  a  theory  to  which  the  fathers  of 
the  republic  never  assented,  in  which  they  never 
believed,  —  that  it  was  safe  or  possible  to  establish  a 
government  which  should  continue  half  slave  and 
half  free.  That  attempt,  made  by  Calhoun,  Jeffer 
son  Davis,  and  the  other  supporters  of  the  rebellion, 
has  failed ;  but  republican  institutions  have  not 
failed.  These  are  strong  to-day,  and  they  will  be 
strengthened  by  the  war. 


NEW- YORK  ELECTION   OP  1862.  183 

Out  of  this  bitter  humiliation,  this  terrible  ex 
perience  in  the  life  of  the  nation,  they  will  come 
forth  improved  and  purified,  so  that  future  genera 
tions  will  believe  in  this  as  the  revolution  in  behalf 
of  freedom,  —  freedom  for  the  human  race.  As  the 
revolution  of  1776  was  a  revolution  for  the  freedom 
of  nations,  and  inasmuch  as  the  life  of  the  man,  the 
life  of  the  race,  is  more  worthy  of  preservation 
than  the  life  merely  of  a  nation,  so  shall  this  revo 
lution  shine  prominent  upon  the  pages  of  history 
as  peer  with  any  other  revolution,  not  in  the  char 
acter  of  its  origin,  but  in  the  fact  that  twenty 
million  of  people  united,  and,  with  one  heart,  with 
one  mind,  placed  their  sacrifices  of  blood  and  treas 
ure  upon  the  altar  of  the  country  for  the  mainte 
nance  of  republican  institutions  on  this  continent. 

Gentlemen,  this  war  has  continued  for  a  year  and 
a  half;  great  sacrifices  have  been  made.  No  man 
can  tell  how  long  it  will  continue ;  but  I  can  predict 
what  must  occur  before  it  closes.  The  race  of  slave 
holders  on  this  continent  must  be  exterminated. 
Not  the  people  of  the  South,  but  the  race  of  slave 
holders  on  this  continent,  must  be  exterminated, 
before  this  war  can  end. 

On  the  23d  of  this  month,  the  first  great  step  was 
taken  towards  the  extermination  of  the  race  of 
slaveholders,  by  the  declaration  of  the  President 
of  the  republic,  that  in  ninety-  days,  if  the  rebel 
lion  shall  not  then  have  ceased,  slavery  in  the  eleven 
rebellious  States  shall  be  overthrown.  When  that 
declaration  shall  have  been  made  a  practical  fact,  as 
it  will  be,  then  the  dawn  of  the  day  of  peace  will 
have  appeared. 


184       GENERAL  WADS  WORTH  AND  THE 

We  must  gird  ourselves  anew  for  the  contest ; 
and  I  have  already  indicated  that  the  principle  of 
the  men  in  the  council  and  in  the  field  should  be 
earnestness  of  purpose  and  fidelity  to  the  cause  of 
the  country.  When  such  men  shall  lead  armies, 
when  such  men  shall  give  direction  to  public  affairs 
everywhere,  in  low  places  as  well  as  in  high,  then 
the  day  of  triumph  will  begin. 

Further  in  regard  to  the  State  of  New  York. 
No  calamity  to  the  country  could  be  greater  than 
the  indication,  if  it  were  possible  that  the  indication 
could  be  given,  —  the  indication,  by  the  great  State 
of  New  York,  that  she  falters  in  this  contest.  That 
indication  will  not  be  given ;  but,  if  the  great  State 
of  New  York  should  fail  to  give  its  vote  for  him 
whom  we  here  honor  to-night,  that  failure  would  be 
taken  as  an  indication  by  the  North,  by  the  South, 
by  all  Europe,  that  the  State  of  New  York  falters 
in  her  devotion  to  this  cause. 

I  cast  no  imputation  upon  the  men  who  oppose  us 
in  the  canvass  in  that  State.  I  do  not  know  what 
their  opinions  are  ;  but  I  do  know  what  the  opinion 
of  the  world  would  be,  if  any  other  man  than  Gen 
eral  Wadsworth  should  be  elected  to  the  chief-mag 
istracy  of  that  State.  It  would  be  simply  this,  that 
New  York  faltered  in  her  devotion  to  this  cause ; 
and  the  result  of  it  would  be  that  every  rebel  heart 
throughout  the  eleven  seceded  States  would  be 
cheered  by  the  announcement  that  New  York  had 
faltered.  Such  a  result,  however,  my  friends,  will 
not  happen.  It  cannot  happen. 

But  I  suggest  its  possibility,  as  indicating  the  in 
terest  which  the  country  and  all  mankind  has  in  the 


NEW-YORK  ELECTION   OF   1862.  185 

result  of  the  contest  which  is  soon  to  be  commenced 
in  that  State.  And  the  city  of  New  York,  the  em 
porium  of  all  our  foreign  and  domestic  commerce, 
with  three-quarters  of  a  million  of  people  already 
within  her  limits,  destined  long  before  the  close  of 
this  century,  if  the  North  triumph,  as  the  North 
must  triumph,  in  this  contest,  to  be  the  centre  of 
the  whole  civilized  world,  —  the  city  of  New  York 
has  in  this  contest  that  at  stake  which  cannot  be 
overestimated.  Is  it  for  that  city  to  falter  in  the 
contributions  which  she  makes,  either  of  opinions, 
of  money,  or  of  men,  when,  by  the  success  of  the 
scheme  of  the  Southern  conspirators,  the  Southern 
portion  of  this  republic  would  be  separated  from 
the  Northern?  Can  the  city  of  New  York  afford 
the  sacrifice  that  she  would  be  called  upon  to  make 
if  secession  should  accomplish  what  has  been  un 
dertaken  ? 

Gentlemen,  one  word  more.  I  say  the  race  of 
slaveholders  in  the  South  is  to  be  exterminated. 
What  follows  ?  Seneca  said  of  the  Roman,  "  Wher 
ever  the  Roman  conquers,  he  inhabits."  Wherever 
the  American  conquers,  he  inhabits.  And  from  the 
millions  of  our  countrymen  from  the  North  whom 
we  are  sending  into  the  field  I  bid  the  South  take 
warning ;  for  we  shall  pour  over  the  border,  during 
the  next  ten  years,  a  quarter  or  a  half  a  million  of 
people,  who  will  regenerate  the  whole  State  of  Vir 
ginia,  so  that  she  shall  be,  when  in  the  embrace  of 
freedom,  what  she  could  never  be  while  lying  under 
the  power  of  slavery,  —  the  first  State  in  all  indus 
trial  resources,  not  only  of  this  continent,  but  of  the 
world. 


186  GENERAL  WADSWORTH  AND  THE 

With  her  climate,  her  fertile  soil,  her  inland  navi 
gation,  her  resources  in  iron,  gold,  and  other  min 
erals,  Virginia  will  be  the  first  State  of  the  republic. 
And  we,  who  to-night  proclaim  and  advocate  the 
extermination  of  the  race  of  slaveholders,  do  it 
in  behalf  of  the  people  of  the  North,  of  Ireland,  of 
Germany,  and  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed  over  all 
Europe,  because  we  open  to  them  new  fields  of  in 
dustry,  of  wealth,  of  domestic  prosperity,  and  happi 
ness.  We,  the  people  of  the  North,  who  carry  on 
this  war  for  the  maintenance  of  the  nation,  do  it 
in  behalf  of  the  human  race.-  It  will  be  the  re 
proach  of  England,  that,  in  the  hour  of  our  adver 
sity,  she  looked  upon  us  with  hostility ;  that  she 
was  unwilling  that  a  great  and  free  republic  should 
be  established  and  maintained  on  this  continent. 
Yet  England  is  to  derive  from  this  revolution,  next 
to  ourselves,  the  largest  amount  of  advantage ;  for 
the  time  will  come  when,  upon  Southern  soil,  the 
free  labor  of  the  North  and  the  free  black  labor  of 
the  South  will  increase  the  production  of  cotton 
twofold,  threefold,  fourfold ;  and,  without  cotton, 
England's  prosperity  must  wane  and  disappear. 

What  is  the  fact  to-day  ?  That  the  whole  pro 
duction  of  cotton  is  not  equal  to  seventy  cents,  when 
manufactured,  for  each  inhabitant  of  the  globe  ;  and 
slavery  and  slaveholders  on  this  continent,  by  the 
monopoly  of  the  best  cotton  lands  of  the  world,  have 
produced  cotton  in  limited  quantities  only,  and  sold 
it  to  the  manufacturers  of  the  world  at  famine  prices. 
When  we  have  emancipated  the  slaves,  when  we 
have  inspired  them  with  sentiments  of  self-protec 
tion  and  with  hopes  of  prosperity,  we  may  increase 


NEW-YORK  ELECTION   OF   1862.  187 

the  product  of  cotton  from  four  million  to  eight 
million,  and  from  eight  to  sixteen  million  of  bales, 
before  the  end  of  this  century ;  and  that  product  is 
in  behalf  of  civilization,  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
world,  but  not  more  for  the  interest  of  any  country 
than  for  England.  I  say  again  that  it  will  be  the 
reproach  of  England  upon  the  page  of  history,  that, 
in  the  hour  of  our  adversity,  she  looked  with  hos 
tility  upon  us. 

But  we  shall  come  out  of  this  war  a  better,  wiser, 
and  more  powerful  people,  with  a  debt,  no  doubt, 
of  five  or  ten  hundred  million  of  dollars,  possibly 
fifteen  hundred  million  of  dollars,  but  with  credit 
unimpaired :  and,  gentlemen,  many  of  you  will  live 
to  see  the  day  when  that  debt  shall  have  been  paid ; 
for  we  have  in  this  country  elements  of  wealth 
which  are  denied  to  any  other  country  on  the  globe. 
Every  acre  of  the  South  which  we  are  to  redeem 
from  slavery,  every  acre  of  land  in  the  far  West, 
when  it  shall  have  been  occupied  by  a  free  laborer, 
is  at  once  security  for  this  debt,  and  the  means  by 
which  it  is  to  be  paid.  We  have,  first,  pecuniary 
resources  sufficient  to  carry  on  this  war ;  but,  sec 
ondly,  the  people  have  a  right  to  demand  of  every 
man  who  has  the  control  of  time  and  money,  that  it 
be  used  so  as  to  produce  the  greatest  possible  results 
to  the  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged. 

The  public  credit  can  be  maintained ;  the  public 
credit  will  be  maintained  ;  armies  will  be  raised ; 
navies  will  be  created ;  men  will  appear  capable  of 
guiding  our  armies,  of  controlling  our  navies ;  and 
we  shall  be  successful  ultimately.  Let  no  man 
have  any  doubts  in  regard  to  this.  The  more  we 


188  GENERAL   WADSWORTH,   ETC. 

are  tried,  and  the  longer  foreign  countries,  by 
refusing  to  recognize  the  right,  continue  this  war 
by  giving  encouragement  to  the  rebellion,  then  in 
that  proportion  will  our  power  be  magnified  when 
the  rebellion  ceases.  I  believe,  that,  when  this  war 
is  ended,  and  England  shall  see  that  we  are  able, 
upon  a  moment's  notice,  to  put  half  a  million  of 
fighting  men,  trained  veterans,  into  the  field ; 
when  we  have  an  iron-clad  navy,  manned  by  sea 
men  who  have  trodden  the  waves  during  all  their 
boyhood  and  manhood,  —  she  will  regret,  when  her 
day  of  trial  comes,  that  she  hesitated  to  do  that 
which  was  right  and  just  in  the  beginning,  which  was 
to  have  said  to  these  rebellious  States  and  these 
traitors,  "  You  will  receive  no  countenance  or 
encouragement  from  us."  If  England  had  made 
this  declaration  on  the  20th  of  April,  1861,  the 
rebellion  would  have  had  no  power  further  to  harm 
her  or  to  harm  mankind. 


189 


SUGGESTIONS  CONCERNING  THE  FURTHER 
PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR. 

[This  article  was  prepared  as  early  as  January,  1863;  and  portions  of 
it  were  printed  in  the  Washington  "  Chronicle  "  in  February  and  March 
of  that  year :  but  it  was  thought  to  be  inexpedient  to  publish  the  portion 
which  suggests  a  plan  of  operations  against  Richmond.  The  editors  also 
declined  to  print  the  paragraphs  relating  to  the  office  of  General-in-chief 
of  the  army.] 

THERE  are  differences  of  opinion  among  loyal 
men  concerning  the  objects  for  which  the  pres 
ent  war  should  be  prosecuted  by  the  people  and  the 
government  of  the  United  States.  There  are  a  few 
persons  who  are  prepared  to  propose  or  to  accept 
dishonorable  conditions  of  peace,  either  upon  the 
basis  of  a  restoration  of  the  Union,  or  a  permanent 
separation ;  but  the  great  majority  of  American 
citizens  are  determined  to  re-establish  the  authority 
of  the  national  government  over  all  the  territory 
which  was  within  the  limits  of  the  Union  previou^ 
to  the  outbreak  of  the  present  rebellion.  The 
peaceful  existence  of  two  governments  between  the 
lines  of  the  Mississippi,  the  Atlantic,  the  great 
lakes,  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  is  an  impossibility. 
The  hope  or  the  expectation  of  such  a  condition 
of  things  is  a  delusion.  The  war  in  which  the 
nation  is  now  involved  can  have  but  one  solution, — 
the  establishment  of  a  common  government  over 
the  region  now  rent  and  devastated  by  civil  strife. 


190  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING   THE 

» 

The  men  who  propose  peace  propose  that  which  is 
impossible.  If  the  rebellion  be  not  overthrown,  its 
triumph  will  not  be  limited  to  the  establishment 
of  an  independent  government ;  but,  gradually  and 
by  steps  clearly  foreseen,  it  will  subjugate  to  itself 
the  territory  of  the  North,  as  well  as  occupy  and 
possess  the  States  of  the  South.  But,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  the  rebellion  cannot  succeed.  Many 
events  may  occur  to  strengthen  it,  to  delay,  to 
encourage ;  but  the  end  is  to  be  the  subjugation 
of  the  rebels,  and  the  seizure  and  occupation  of 
the  rebel  States.  Offers  of  mediation,  foreign 
interference,  foreign  war,  may  embarrass  and  crip 
ple  the  North ;  but,  after  all  and  always,  the  neces 
sity  and  the  duty  will  continue.  The  rebellion  is 
to  be  crushed,  the  rebels  are  to  be  subjugated,  the 
power  of  the  old  government  is  to  be.  re-established 
over  all  the  seceding  States.  There  is  not  only  no 
interest  in  the  North  that  can  accept  peace  upon  any 
other  basis,  but  there  is  not  even  a  man  who  can 
afford  to  share  its  disaster  and  its  dishonor. 

Those  who  suppose,  be  they  of  the  North  or  of  the 
South,  that  no  more  men  will  be  furnished,  labor 
under  a  serious  error.  When  one  army  has  disap 
peared,  another  will  appear.  If  there  be  no  states 
manship  in  council,  if  there  be  no  genius  or  capacity 
in  the  field,  we  still  have  numbers  and  courage,  to 
be  wrought  finally  into  desperation  ;  and  arithmetic 
will  do  the  rest.  We  can,  in  even  battles,  or  with 
odds  of  losses  against  us,  exterminate  the  fighting 
population  of  the  South ;  and  there  will  then  remain 
millions  of  fighting  men,  millions  of  laboring  men, 
in  the  North,  with  freedom  for  the  whole  continent, 


FUETHER  PROSECUTION   OP   THE   WAR.  191 

and  a  career  of  prosperity  and  power  open  before  us 
as  a  nation. 

But  we  have  statesmanship  and  genius  and  ca 
pacity;  and,  though  these  characteristics  have  not 
been  developed  rapidly,  they  exist  in  our  rulers, 
leaders,  and  people.  We  have  made  great  mistakes, 
neglected  favorable  opportunities ;  but  all  nations 
have  done  the  same.  The  rebels,  with  years  of 
preparation  for  leadership,  have  not  exhibited  high 
qualities  in  any  branch  of  their  service. 

During  the  twenty  months  of  actual  war,  the 
North  has  made  acquisitions  of  territory  and  gained 
many  strategic  points,  none  of  which  have  been  re 
taken  by  the  rebels.  The  enemies  of  the  country 
have  raised  great  armies,  fought  many  battles,  some 
of  them  successful  battles ;  and  yet  they  have  been 
losing  ground.  Without  assistance  from  abroad, 
their  future  experience  will  be  the  same ;  and  assist 
ance  from  abroad  will  only  magnify  the  war,  in 
volve  Europe  in  the  contest,  and  put  far  off  the  day 
when  the  South  will  contribute  to  the  comfort  and 
progress  of  the  human  race.  Foreign  interference  is 
not  impossible  ;  but  it  is  less  probable  than  it  was  in 
March,  or  even  in  December,  1862. 

It  is  always  to  be  assumed,  that  the  ruling  classes 
of  Europe  are  hostile  to  this  government,  and  that 
they  welcome,  and,  as  far  as  opportunity  allows,  they 
aid  and  encourage,  the  rebellion.  In  England,  this 
hostile  feeling  is  strong.  It  is  exhibited  by  the 
press,  iii  Parliament,  and  by  the  ministry.  It  has 
not  yet  dared  to  defy  the  sentiment  of  the  masses, 
and  to  ally  itself  openly  with  the  rebels.  Any 
movement  by  France  will  be  dictated  by  a  desire  to 


192  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING  THE 

occupy  the  North,  and  perhaps  England,  so  that 
her  policy  in  Mexico  and  Central  America  may  be 
prosecuted  without  open  opposition  by  her  two  rivals 
in  commerce  and  war.  If,  by  an  alliance  with  Eng 
land  and  mediation  in  American  affairs,  yet  so 
managed  as  not  to  come  to  open  hostilities,  Napoleon 
can  secure  a  footing  in  Mexico  or  Central  America, 
and  establish  a  channel  of  communication  with  the 
Pacific,  he  will  have  succeeded,  in  connection  with 
the  canal  across  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  in  putting  a 
girdle  around  the  globe,  and  in  securing  commer 
cial  and  military  advantages  of  the  most  signal 
importance.  His  policy,  it  may  be,  looks  only  to 
the  employment  of  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain  during  the  ensuing  two  years,  that  he 
may  successfully  advance  these  schemes  of  a  com 
prehensive  ambition,  not  unworthy  a  great  ruler  of 
any  age  or  country. 

The  influence  of  the  cotton  famine  is  more  likely 
to  be  diminished  than  increased.  It  is  not  improb 
able  that  one-half  of  the  ordinary  crop  of  American 
cotton  will  be  accounted  for  by  the  increased  produc 
tion  of  other  countries.  In  1863,  there  will  be  no 
deficiency,  except  what  may  arise  from  the  growing 
demand  for  cotton  manufactures.  As,  however,  the 
high  price  of  cotton  has  led  to  the  more  common  use 
of  wool  and  flax  as  substitutes,  we  may  reasonably 
anticipate  a  gradual  reduction  in  the  price  of  cotton, 
tested  by  the  standard  of  gold.  Especially  will  this 
be  the  case  should  there  be  obtained  from  the 
American  States  a  quantity  exceeding  two  hundred 
thousand  bales  during  the  next  ninety  days. 

It  is  also  to  be  noted,  that  the  Proclamation  of 


FUETHER  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR.     193 

Emancipation  disarms  the  masses  of  Europe  of  any 
sympathy  they  might  have  had  with  the  South.  This 
fact  may  not  only  be  declared  by  the  friends  of 
emancipation :  it  must  be  admitted  by  its  opponents. 
Hence  it  follows  that  war  cannot  now  be  safely  in 
augurated  by  any  country  of  Europe,  except  upon 
issues  distinct  from  those  connected  with  the  con 
troversy  in  the  United  States.  These  issues  may 
be  formed  by  England  or  France,  if  the  motives  be 
sufficiently  strong.  The  hostility  of  England  is  due 
to  her  institutions,  to  the  distresses  of  her  people, 
and  to  her  history  and  traditions  in  connection  with 
America.  Now  that  the  North,  in  its  dealings 
with  the  South,  is  put  unequivocally  on  the  side  of 
freedom,  it  will  not  be  easy  for  the  British  Govern 
ment  to  give  open  aid  or  official  recognition  to  the 
rebellion. 

France  is  not  our  enemy;  Napoleon  is  not  our 
enemy.  If  his  policy  is  now  openly  or  covertly  hos 
tile  to  the  United  States,  he  is  not  likely  to  be  drawn 
so  far  as  to  develop  that  policy  into  actual  war.  He 
may  annoy  us ;  he  may  counsel  mediation ;  he  may 
seek  to  involve  England  in  hostilities:  but  the  posi 
tive,  armed  interference  of  Napoleon  cannot  reason 
ably  be  anticipated. 

It  may,  then,  be  assumed  safely,  as  the  basis  of 
our  domestic  policy,  that  there  is  before  us  a  period 
of  time  during  which  we  shall  be  free  from  the 
active,  or  at  least  from  the  open,  interference  of 
other  governments.  If  Russia  is  our  friend,  as  we 
have  reason  to  believe,  every  thing  in  honor  should 
be  done  to  preserve  her  as  our  friend.  Her  friend 
ship  for  us  is  security  against  the  hostility  of  Eng- 

13 


194  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING   THE 

land.  The  British  possessions  on  the  north,  in 
case  of  war  against  England  by  Russia  and  America 
as  allies,  would  almost  inevitably  be  transferred  and 
partitioned.  At  any  rate,  England  will  be  slow  to 
assume  so  great  a  risk. 

But  it  is  to  be  observed,  and  it  should  never  be 
forgotten  by  people  or  rulers,  that,  in  periods  of 
strife,  when  human  passions  are  excited,  and  when 
individual  and  national  ambitions  are  distempered 
and  feverish,  no  security  can  be  taken,  not  even  for 
a  month  or  for  a  day,  that  the  waywardness  of  the 
multitude,  or  the  caprices  of  a  monarch  or  a  minister, 
may  not  involve  nations  in  controversies  and  war. 
So,  then,  if,  by  processes  of  reasoning  upon  facts  as 
they  are  known,  we  relieve  ourselves  measurably  of 
anxiety  concerning  foreign  interference,  we  should 
act  nevertheless  as  though  such  interference  were  im 
pending.  Hence  we  should  increase  and  strengthen 
our  navy  for  defensive  and  offensive  war,  whether 
against  the  rebels  or  their  possible  allies.  No 
reasoning  upon  this  point  is  needed.  The  people 
will  only  be  satisfied  when  every  power  of  the  coun 
try  that  can  be  turned  into  this  channel  is  sought 
out  and  used  to  exhaustion. 

If,  among  the  calamities  in  store  for  this  nation, 
foreign  war  be  one,  and  if  when  that  calamity  comes 
it  shall  appear  that  the  government  has  neglected 
to  do  what  might  have  been  done  for  the  defence  of 
the  coast,  for  the  protection  of  our  commerce  on  the 
ocean,  and  for  the  assault  of  our  enemies  in  their 
strongholds,  the  current  of  popular  indignation  will 
break  down  all  the  barriers  of  office,  and  overwhelm 
minister  and  administration.  Not  considering  at  all 


FURTHER  PROSECUTION   OP   THE   WAR.  195 

what  has  been  done  (and  much  has  been  done)  to 
increase  and  strengthen  the  navy,  no  delays  should 
be  permitted,  no  economy  of  mere  money  should  be 
tolerated ;  but  every  appropriate  power  of  the   na 
tion  should  be  devoted  to  the  task  of  strengthening 
the   maritime   force   of  the   United   States.     Each 
week  that  the  war  continues  beyond  the  time  when 
by  possible  exertions  it  could   have   been   closed, 
will,  in  its  cost,  be  equivalent  to  the  sum  needed  to 
build  and  equip  an  iron-clad  fleet  which  would  bid 
defiance  to  the  fortifications  of  Yicksburg,  Mobile, 
Fort  Darling,  or  Charleston.     So  vast  are  the  pro 
portions   of  this  war,  that   relatively  there   is   no 
economy  worth   considering  but  the   economy  of 
time.    Days  pass,  expenses  are  necessarily  incurred, 
debts  inevitably  accumulate.     There  should  be  a 
careful  supervision  of  public  expenses,  a  rigid  sys 
tem  of  accountability,  due  punishment  should  be 
administered  to  all  who  are  guilty  of  fraud ;   but, 
however  faithfully  these  things  may  be  done,  the 
savings  will   be   insignificant  when   compared,   or 
rather  when  contrasted,  with  our  monthly  or  even 
weekly  expenditures.     The  use  or  the  waste  of  a 
day,  as  it  shortens  or  protracts  the  war,  is  the  great 
economy  or  the  great  extravagance  of  the  nation. 
Hence  not  unwisely  were  the  people  instinctively 
restive  when   disciplined   armies   wasted   precious 
weeks  and  months   in   unexplained   delays.      The 
sacrifice  of  human  life  incident  to  war  is  not  so 
much  dependent  upon  the  losses  in  battle  as  upon 
the  diseases  of  the  camp.     Therefore,  in  war,  econ 
omy  of  life  is  to  be  attained  by  activity.    In  war,  as  in 
all  the  other  undertakings  of  men,  there  is  security 


196  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING   THE 

in  vigor,  there  is  safety  in  courage.  It  is  not  alone 
that,  by  the  exhibition  of  these  qualities,  the  enemy 
is  harassed  and  weakened :  they  who  possess  these 
qualities  are  themselves  encouraged  and  strength 
ened.  The  economy  of  time  is  at  once  the  economy 
of  money  and  the  economy  of  human  life. 

But  this  economy  is  the  fruit  of  capacity,  of  dis 
cipline,  of  system ;  and  it  cannot  be  secured  in  any 
other  way. 

The  capacity  of  the  loyal  States  for  the  business 
of  war  was,  in  the  beginning,  entirely  unorganized, 
and  only  in  an  inconsiderable  degree  developed. 
The  experience  of  the  nation  in  Mexico,  Utah,  and 
on  the  frontiers  inured  to  the  benefit  of  the  rebel 
States,  as  the  result  of  a  policy  long  since  adopted 
and  steadily  pursued.  Yet,  among  men  of  the  first 
and  second  rank  in  our  army,  there  is  no  lack  of 
capacity.  There  are  many,  no  doubt,  who  occupy 
places  for  which  they  are  not  fitted.  Such  officers 
should  be  removed  from  positions  of  trust,  whether 
the  unfitness  they  exhibit  is  due  to  actual  incapacity 
or  to  a  lack  of  earnestness  in  the  war.  Mere  pro 
fessional  service,  which  has  no  higher  purpose  than 
to  preserve  one's  honor  untarnished,  is  altogether 
unworthy  the  life  of  a  true  soldier  of  the  republic ; 
and,  whenever  such  men  are  discovered,  whatever 
their  rank  or  reputation,  they  should  be  relieved 
summarily  from  duty. 

Next,  all  regiments  numbering  less  than  four 
hundred  men  should  be  consolidated,  and  the  most 
incapable  officers  discharged  from  the  service ;  and 
the  same  rule  should  be  applied  to  companies  and 
company  officers.  By  this  means,  the  efficiency  of 


FURTHER  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR.     197 

the  army  would  become  at  once  a  fourth  greater 
than  it  now  is ;  and  especially  in  the  fact  that  officers 
would  be  anxious  to  preserve  their  men  from  death 
and  desertion,  while  they  would  be  stimulated  to. 
secure  a  character  which  would  avail  them  in  case 
of  consolidation.  At  present,  officers  of  regiments, 
boast  of  the  small  number  of  men  fit  for  duty,  as 
though  this  fact  were  evidence  of  courage  and 
worth!  No  amount  of  care  on  the  part  of  officers 
can  save  men  from  death ;  but  the  faithful  perform 
ance  of  duty  would  sensibly  diminish  the  losses  of 
the  army. 

The  work  of  consolidating  the  broken  regiments 
of  the  army  cannot  with  safety  or  propriety  be 
longer  delayed. 

In  a  civil  war,  it  is  a  great  error  to  depend  exclu 
sively,  or  even  chiefly,  upon  professional  soldiers 
for  leaders.  In  such  wars,  the  passions  are  the  mas 
ters  ;  and  hence  those  who  are  indifferent  to  the 
questions  at  issue  are  uniformly  unsuccessful.  War 
is  not  different  from  other  pursuits ;  and  in  no  other 
pursuit  is  success  attained  by  the  performance  of 
mere  professional  duty.  There  must  be  an  exhi 
bition  of  will, — a  determination  to  accomplish  what 
is  undertaken.  In  this  war,  there  is  no  place  for  the 
mere  professional  soldier.  In  this  war,  a  General 
must  believe  in  the  nation's  cause,  or  he  cannot  fight 
successfully  the  nation's  battles.  The  nation's  cause 
is  freedom ;  the  rebels'  cause  is  slavery.  He  who 
believes  in  slavery  cannot  succeed  as  the  defender 
of  freedom.  Hence  it  follows  that  a  military  educa 
tion  alone  does  not  qualify  a  man  to  take  a  leading 
part  in  this  contest. 


198  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING   THE 

The  rebels  have  intrusted  but  few  commands  to 
persons  who  are  not  representatives  of  the  cause 
for  which  they  contend.  A  military  education  or  a 
military  experience  renders  the  services  of  a  leader 
proportionately  valuable ;  but  it  is  wiser  to  confide 
in  a  representative  of  the  opinion,  who  has  but  a 
small  share  of  military  knowledge,  than  to  trust 
a  professional  soldier  who  has  no  fixed  opinions  in 
favor  of  the  principle  involved. 

But  it  is  not  safe  to  confide  implicitly  in  the 
common  aphorism  that  war  is  a  science.  If  it  be  a 
science  at  all,  it  is  a  science  only  as  agriculture, 
manufactures,  and  commerce  are  sciences.  In  strict 
ness,  this  cannot  be  said  of  these  pursuits ;  but  it  is 
rather  only  true,  that,  for  their  development  and 
progress,  we  are  indebted  to  the  sciences.  It  does 
not  follow  that  a  statistician  or  geographer  will  make 
a  successful  merchant ;  that  an  astronomer  will  best 
navigate  a  vessel;  that  a  chemist,  therefrom  and 
thereby,  is  a  good  farmer;  that  a  school-teacher 
can  administer  a  system  of  education ;  or  that  the 
student  of  the  laws  of  force  and  of  motion  will 
acquire  wealth  and  distinction  as  a  manufacturer. 
Indeed,  human  experience  teaches  the  opposite. 
The  successful  merchant  is  he  who,  having  ade 
quate  ability,  and  a  determination  to  succeed,  sum 
mons  to  his  aid  all  the  contributions  which  science 
has  made,  and  so  applies  these  contributions  as  to 
render  his  undertakings  successful.  This  is  the  law 
of  success  in  war,  as  well  as  in  the  vocations  of 
peace. 

While  a  military  training  is  not  to  be  set  aside, 
its  greatest  value  relatively  will  be  observed  among 


FURTHER  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR.     199 

subordinates  and  men  of  common  capacities  ;  nor 
has  it  happened,  nor  will  it  ever  happen,  that  it  can 
be  said  of  any  truly  great  commander,  that  he  would 
have  been  otherwise  than  a  great  commander  if  he 
had  not  received  a  military  education.  What  a  man 
has  done,  rather  than  what  has  been  done  for  him, 
should  be  the  test  of  his  ability  to  serve  the  country 
in  the  present  crisis. 

Without  discipline  in  an  army,  there  can  be  no 
security  for  success ;  and  there  can  be  no  discipline 
without  power  in  commanders  to  try  subalterns  and 
soldiers  for  offences  prejudicial  to  good  order,  and  to 
inflict  immediate  punishment,  whether  such  punish 
ment  be  the  dishonorable  discharge  of  officers,  or  the 
penalty  of  death  upon  soldiers  or  officers.  These 
proceedings  should  be  summary,  and  without  ap 
peal  to  the  President.  Military  rules  are  neces 
sarily  severe,  —  military  discipline  is  necessarily 
harsh ;  and  it  is  never  safe  for  men  in  civil  life  to 
revise  the  judgments  of  commanders  in  the  field, 
who  realize  daily  the  necessity  of  exact  and  unre 
lenting  proceedings.  War  is  a  stern  teacher ;  and 
any  attempt  to  smooth  its  pathway  only  swells  the 
aggregate  of  losses  and  horrors.  The  failure  of  an 
officer  or  soldier  to  discharge  his  whole  duty,  or 
his  neglect  to  prepare  and  hold  himself  ready  for 
service,  should  receive  severe  punishment  as  the 
means  whereby  losses  and  disasters  are  avoided. 
An  army  can  never  pay  too  much  for  the  virtue  of 
discipline :  the  losses  that  follow  disorganization  can 
not  be  foreseen,  but  in  anticipation  they  can  never 
be  exaggerated. 

Inteniperance  is  an  evil  in  the  army,  and  chiefly 


200  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING  THE 

an  evil  among  officers.  It  is  not  only  because  in 
temperance  is  a  vice  that  the  rules  should  be  rigidly 
enforced  against  all  who  are  guilty,  even  in  a  single 
instance,  but  chiefly  as  a  means  of  securing  the 
country  against  losses  by  surprises  on  the  part  of  our 
enemies,  and  incompetency  on  our  own  part,  which 
yield  successive  harvests  of  defeats,  disasters,  and 
humiliations.  An  officer  who  is  guilty  of  intemper 
ance  should  be  instantly,  and  in  dishonor,  dismissed 
from  the  service. 

There  can  be  no  trustworthy  discipline  in  the  ar 
my  until  officers  and  men  are  held  to  the  most  rigid 
accountability  for  their  good  conduct ;  and  especially 
is  it  true  that  there  can  be  no  discipline  until  deser 
tion,  the  greatest  crime  of  the  soldier  next  to  treason, 
is  punishable  and  punished  by  the  death  of  the 
offender.  Outside  of  the  War  Department,  rumor  is 
the  only  authority  for  our  losses  through  this  chan 
nel  ;  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  records  of  the 
Department  contain  accurate  and  complete  informa 
tion  upon  the  subject.  But  enough  is  known  in  the 
streets  to  warrant  the  statement,  that,  since  the  first 
of  December  last,  all  the  recruits  obtained  will  not 
make  good  the  losses  by  desertion.  The  license 
given  to  soldiers  in  this  particular,  by  law  and  by 
neglect,  must  weaken  and  ultimately  destroy  the 
armies  of  the  republic. 

In  this  particular,  as  in  all  things  connected  with 
military  affairs,  authority  and  its  rigorous  exercise 
are  the  only  securities  for  the  public  welfare.  The 
first  requisite  of  the  army  is  discipline,  —  discipline 
at  any  cost.  The  second  requisite  of  the  army  is 
action.  For  activity  in  the  administration  of  pub- 


FURTHER   PROSECUTION   OF   THE  WAR.  201 

lie  affairs,  military  and  civil,  there  is  usually  a 
necessity;  and,  if  there  be  no  necessity,  there  is 
always  justification  or  plausible  excuse.  For  in 
action  there  is  never  a  necessity,  and  seldom  a 
justification. 

And  the  time  has  come  when  the  country,  when 
the  President,  should  consider  whether  the  office  of 
General-in-chief  of  the  Army  is  not,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  necessarily  calculated  to  divide  responsibil 
ity  ;  to  diminish  public  confidence ;  to  weaken  the 
power  of  the  President  as  the  Comm^ider-in-chief  of 
the  army ;  to  embarrass  the  administration  of  the  War 
Department,  to  which  the  nation  ought  to  look  and 
must  look  for  the  means  of  prosecuting  the  war  effi 
ciently,  systematically,  and  triumphantly.  It  may  be 
necessary,  and  in  times  of  public  peril  it  is  no  doubt 
wise,  for  the  President  to  seek  and  to  accept  the 
counsels  of  experienced  and  competent  persons ;  but 
such  are  the  limitations  to  the  capacities  of  men,  such 
the  accidents  and  mistakes  incident  to  human  con 
duct,  and  such  is  the  authority  of  nature  in  the  ele 
ments  and  in  the  unforeseen  obstacles  which  they 
often  interpose,  that  military  operations  in  the  field 
must  be  left  exclusively  to  commanders  in  the 
field.  Any  exercise  of  authority,  or  any  tender  of 
suggestion  even,  is  always  a  hazard,  and,  if  obeyed 
or  accepted,  is  usually  a  disaster.  All  the  military 
operations  and  doings  of  a  government  in  time 
of  war  should  fall  under  one  or  another  of  three 
heads : — 

1.  A  general  plan  of  the  campaign. 

2.  The  appointment  of  officers  to  be  assigned  to 
active  service  in  the  field. 


202  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING   T"HE 

3.  Timely  and  sufficient  supplies. 

To  what  extent  can  a  General-in-chief,  resident 
at  the  capital,  render  valuable  services  in  either 
of  these  three  particulars  ?  If  he  be  the  most  com 
petent  man  in  the  country,  then  he  should  be  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  War  Department,  and  made  the 
constitutional  adviser  of  the  President.  Upon  the 
present  basis,  there  is  a  divided  jurisdiction  ;  and,  in 
the  nature  of  the  case,  neither  the  General-in-chief 
nor  the  Secretary  of  War  can,  at  any  moment,  be  in 
possession  of  aB  the  information  relating  to  the  army 
that  is  essential  to  the  safe  exercise  of  the  best  judg 
ment.  There  should  be  one  man  in  authority  under 
the  President  who  should  be  administratively  in 
possession  of  all  the  military  information  which  is 
or  can  be  known  to  the  government.  There  can  be 
but  one  such  man.  What  should  be  his  office, 
what  his  relation  to  the  President?  He  can  only 
be  in  possession  of  the  necessary  information  by 
virtue  of  his  office  as  the  head  of  the  War  Depart 
ment  ;  for  it  is  there  that  all  military  information 
naturally  centres.  If  the  channels  of  information 
are  divided,  some  trending  towards  the  War  Depart 
ment,  and  others  towards  the  office  of  General-in- 
chief,  neither  will  be  able  to  give  safe  advice.  Nor 
is  it  easy  to  estimate  the  importance  of  securing  to 
the  head  of  a  department  every  item  of  information, 
however  valueless  it  may  seem,  when  considered  as 
an  isolated  fact.  We  can  have  but  one  Depart 
ment  of  War,  which  must  have  a  head  who  should 
be  responsible  to  the  President  and  to  the  country. 
He  should  be  the  recipient  of  all  information  touch 
ing  the  fortunes  of  the  army  in  the  field ;  and  if, 


FURTHER  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR.     203 

by  the  creation  of  the  office  of  General-in-chief, 
the  Secretary  of  War  is  deprived  of  any  informa 
tion  to  which  otherwise  he  would  be  entitled,  he  is 
necessarily  made  accountable  for  doings  of  which 
he  can  have  110  knowledge.  Hence  come  disasters 
inevitably. 

These  observations  are  addre'ssed  to  the  question 
of  the  expediency  of  continuing  the  office  of  Gen 
eral-in-chief,  and  are  made  without  reference  to  the 
eminent  soldiers  who  have  filled  the  exalted  and 
influential  position. 

From  the  commencement  of  the  war,  there  has 
been  a  universal  opinion  that  the  Mississippi  River 
should  be  opened.  As  yet,  the  government  has 
failed  to  accomplish  this  great  undertaking.  Such 
are  now  the  fortunes  of  the  country,  and  the  dan 
gers  impending,  that  delay  in  the  prosecution  of  this 
work  is  full  of  peril.  It  is  hoped  and  generally  be 
lieved  that  the  present  season  will  realize  the  expec 
tations  of  the  country  in  the  fall  of  Vicksburg  and 
Port  Hudson. 

There  should,  however,  be  no  uncertainty.  It  is 
in  our  power  to  concentrate  so  vast  a  force  upon  the 
Upper  Mississippi  that  it  will  be  impossible  for  the 
rebels  to  maintain  their  present  position.  Indeed, 
it  is  in  our  power  to  transfer  the  war  to  the  West, 
where  the  river  would  be  the  base  of  our  operations 
from  New  Orleans  to  Memphis.  Such  an  opportu 
nity  should  not  be  overlooked.  If  we  succeed  in 
this  effort,  every  thing  else  will  follow.  Mobile  will 
fall.  The  separation  of  Texas  and  Arkansas  will 
diminish  the  supplies  of  the  rebel  armies,  and  enable 
the  government  to  devote  the  resources  of  those 


204  SUGGESTIONS   CONCEKNING  THE 

great  States  to  the  cause  of  the  Constitution  and 
Union.  Moreover,  the  acquisition  of  these  exten 
sive  cotton-growing  regions  will  furnish  at  once  a 
supply  of  one-fourth  of  a  million  of  bales  of  previous 
crops ;  and  it  will  so  stimulate  industry,  that,  in  1864, 
the  product  will  be  twice  what  it  has  been  in  former 
years.  When  we  can  export  five  hundred  thousand 
bales  of  cotton,  our  resources  and  credit  will  be 
wonderfully  augmented.  As  far  as  our  own  gov 
ernment  is  concerned,  the  war  should  be  transferred 
to  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi.  The  rebels  must 
accept  battle  there,  and  submit  the  waning  fortunes 
of  the  Confederacy  to  the  arbitrament  of  arms 
where  the  advantages  of  position  and  supplies  are 
with  us.  Let  there  be  no  delay  in  the  adoption  of 
a  policy  which  will  give  the  government  these 
manifest  advantages.  All  thoughts  of  a  movement 
upon  Richmond  may  well  be  postponed  for  the  pres 
ent.  It  is,  indeed,  to  be  assumed,  upon  any  sound 
theory  of  future  movements,  that  an  attack  upon 
Richmond  is  to  be  incidental,  while  the  chief  object 
should  be  to  secure  the  control  of  the  Mississippi 
River ;  and,  in  this  attempt,  the  troops  of  the  East, 
and  especially  of  New  England,  should  be  employed. 
By  such  a  movement,  the  soldiers  of  the  Atlantic 
would  be  made  acquainted  with  the  characteristics, 
ideas,  and  necessities  of  the  West ;  while  the  people 
of  the  great  valley  might  be  better  satisfied  than 
heretofore  of  the  fidelity  of  the  East  to  the  inter 
ests  of  the  whole  country.  It  is  too  plain  for 
argument,  that,  with  our  resources,  and  with  our 
communication  with  the  Mississippi  at  its  mouth, 
and  our  exclusive  command  of  its  waters  above 


FURTHER  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR.     205 

Memphis,  we  can  carry  on  the  war  upon  its  banks 
with  great  advantages  on  our  side.  We  should  first 
cut  the  railway  communications  westward  from 
Vicksburg;  then  cut  the  railroad  communications 
between  Yicksburg  and  the  country  eastward.  These 
things  were  done  previous  to,  and  in  anticipation  of, 
the  recent  attack  upon  that  post.  The  force  aggre 
gated  should  be  so  vast  as  to  render  defeat  quite 
impossible.  The  rebels  must  concentrate  their 
forces  at  Vicksburg.  In  the  end,  the  town  must  fall. 
Nothing  else  can  happen;  and  in  proportion  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  force  employed  by  the  rebels,  and 
the  vigor  and  pertinacity  of  the  defence,  will  be  the 
magnitude  of 'the  success  when  it  comes.  River 
communications  are  cheaper  and  safer  than  rail 
way  communications.  If  a  vessel  or  even  a  fleet  of 
transports  should  be  destroyed  upon  the  Mississippi, 
the  great  highway  remains.  It  cannot  be  removed 
or  obstructed. 

The  success  of  the  Union  armies  is  to  be  achieved 
by  transferring  the  war  to  the  Mississippi.  As  this 
noble  river  is  the  bond  which  cannot  be  broken; 
so  upon  its  bosom  are  to  be  borne  the  brave  men 
of  the  West  and  the  East,  who,  on  its  banks,  will 
illustrate  the  courage  of  the  country,  and  achieve 
the  great,  the  crowning,  victories  of  the  republic. 

It  may  be,  that,  at  this  moment,  our  preparations 
are  adequate  for  the  reduction  of  the  rebel  strong 
holds  upon  the  Mississippi:  but  this  may  well  be 
doubted ;  and,  in  any  view  of  probabilities,  it  is  the 
part  of  wisdom  to  make  the  most  formidable  demon 
stration  that  our  resources  permit.  Yicksburg  is 
more  important  to  the  rebels  than  Richmond:  its 


206  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING   THE 

subjugation  is  more  important  to  us ;  its  capture 
is  an  undertaking  which  can  hardly  fail  of  success ; 
and,  for  this  undertaking,  the  most  sturdy  and  com 
prehensive  plans  should  be  organized  and  prosecu 
ted  without  delay. 

Shall  Washington  be  left  without  protection? 
Certainly  not.  The  season  protects  Washington 
against  all  attacks  by  the  Upper  Potomac  until  the 
first  of  May.  The  approaches  by  Arlington  Heights 
are  easily  defended.  The  Lower  Potomac  is  impas 
sable.  Leave  Virginia,  between  the  Potomac  and 
the  Shenandoah,  to  the  care  and  mercy  of  whom 
soever  may  desire  to  lament  over,  or  rejoice  in,  the 
devastation  which  the  rebellion  has  produced. 

This  course  will  enable  the  government  to  reduce 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  materially.  Of  the  force 
thus  relieved,  fifty  thousand  may  be  sent  to  the  West ; 
and  a  force  of  at  least  fifty  thousand  more  should 
be  landed  upon  the  right  bank  of  the  James  River 
as  near  Richmond  as  practicable,  and,  if  possible, 
above  the  mouth  of  the  Appomattox.  These  troops 
should  be  supported  by  gunboats  in  the  river.  There 
are  points  within  the  limits  indicated — that  is,  be 
tween  the  Appomattox  and  Richmond — so  strong 
by  nature,  and  so  easily  strengthened  by  art,  that 
the  whole  rebel  army  may  be  defied.  This  done, 
and  the  second  important  point  in  the  rebellious 
States  is  menaced,  and  can  never  be  relieved  so  long 
as  we  command  the  James  River.  Under  these  cir 
cumstances,  Richmond  cannot  be  abandoned.  With 
fifty  thousand  troops  in  Washington,  who  can  be 
transported  in  a  few  hours  to  the  Upper  James, 
where,  in  combination  with  the  army  of  observation, 


FURTHER  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR.     207 

a  hundred  thousand  men  might  in  any  week  be 
precipitated  upon  the  rebel  capital,  nearly  the 
whole  of  Lee's  army  would  be  retained  for  its  de 
fence.  If  it  should  happen  otherwise,  then  the 
armies  of  the  republic  combined,  by  a  rapid  move 
ment  from  Washington,  Fortress  Monroe,  and  Suf 
folk,  would  attack  the  city  with  the  best  prospects 
of  success. 

There  may  be  those  who  are  reluctant  to  divide 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  which  is  endeared  to  the 
country  by  its  great  deeds  as  well  as  by  its  unpar 
alleled  sacrifices  and  sufferings.  Let  all  such  con 
sider  that  there  is  not  the  remotest  chance  of  a 
successful  movement  upon  Richmond  by  the  way  of 
Gordonsville  or  Fredericksburg,  or  by  any  other  in 
terior  route.  The  distance  is  great ;  the  country  is 
destitute  of  subsistence  for  men  or  cattle ;  there  are 
numerous  streams,  rivers,  and  ridges,  to  be  crossed. 
All  these  are  difficulties,  barriers,  obstacles  in  our 
way ;  and  they  all  constitute  defences  for  the  enemy. 
This  only  further  can  be  hoped  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  during  the  next  three  months,  if  left  to 
operate  from  its  present  base, — tjiat  it  may  interrupt 
the  communications  between  Richmond  and  Freder 
icksburg,  and  compel  the  forces  in  the  latter  place 
to  fight  or  capitulate.  But,  inasmuch  as  Fredericks- 
burg  is  of  no  considerable  importance  to  the  rebels, 
any  movement  promising  success  would  lead  to  the 
evacuation  of  that  city,  and  the  retreat  of  the  rebel 
army  towards  Richmond.  A  pursuit  must  end  in 
disaster.  Therefore  not  one  day  should  be  spent 
upon  the  Rappahannock  more  than  may  be  neces 
sary  for  the  proper  withdrawal  of  the  army. 


208  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING  THE 

<: 

The  advantages  of  a  position  upon  the  James 
River,  and  especially  of  a  position  above  the  mouth 
of  the  Appomattox,  deserve  consideration.  It  threat 
ens  three  vital  points  of  the  enemy, — Petersburg. 
Fort  Darling,  and  Richmond.  Our  army  would  be 
within  a  triangle,  of  which  the  longer  leg  —  the 
James  River,  between  Richmond  and  the  Appomat 
tox  —  would  be  the  base  of  our  operations ;  the 
other  sides  being  the  Appomattox  below  Petersburg, 
and  the  railway  between  Petersburg  and  Rich 
mond.  This  railway  is  distant  from  the  James 
River  from  five  to  twenty  miles.  It  is  well  known 
that  this  railway  is  defended  by  fortifications  of 
an  important  character ;  but  the  length  of  the  line 
is  so  great  that  it  cannot  be  successfully  main 
tained  against  such  attacks  as  could  be  made  from 
the  river.  We  should  be  able  by  a  night's  march 
to  cut  it  at  one  or  many  points,  and  thus  inter 
rupt  the  connections  between  the  cities.  More 
over,  an  advance  might  be  threatened  or  made 
towards  or  upon  Richmond  upon  either  side  of  the 
river. 

With  all  these  manifest  advantages,  we  should 
occupy  the  attention  of  an  army  larger  than  our 
own,  while  we  rested  in  comparative  safety;  always 
menacing,  and  as  opportunity  offered  attacking,  the 
stronghold  of  the  enemy.  With  the  fall  of  Vicks- 
burg,  there  could  be  a  concentration  of  forces  below 
Richmond,  and  upon  the  side  from  whence  the  city 
is  finally  to  be  taken.  Whenever  an  army  of  one 
hundred  thousand  men  is  encamped  upon  the  tri 
angle  between  the  two  rivers,  the  rebels  will  be 
called  to  evacuate  Richmond,  and  attempt  the  de- 


FURTHER  PROSECUTION  OF  THE  WAR.     209 

fence  of  a  lower  line  toward  the  cotton  States,  or 
to  abandon  Petersburg  and  trust  Richmond  to  the 
integrity  of  the  railway  communications  to  the  West 
and  South-west.  In  either  case,  Richmond  is 
weakened.  When  is  this  to  be  done  ?  Not  until 
other  important  preliminary  undertakings  are  ac 
complished. 

The  order  might  be  this :  First,  menace  Rich 
mond  by  the  transfer  of  an  army  of  observation  to 
the  James ;  withdraw  from  the  Rappahannock  as  cir 
cumstances  may  dictate ;  then  strengthen  the  Army 
of  the  West,  and  mass  such  a  force  upon  the  Missis 
sippi  that  the  rebels  will  yield  the  river.  This  is 
not  only  possible, — it  is  practicable:  it  is  not  only 
practicable,  but  it  is  certain  ;  and,  being  at  once 
possible,  practicable,  and  certain,  the  necessities  of 
the  country  may  well  demand  its  attempt  upon  a 
scale  proportionate  to  its  importance  to  the  cause 
of  the  Union,  rather  than  to  the  real  difficulties  of 
the  undertaking  itself.  We  should  no  longer  at 
tempt  to  maintain  positions  which  are  not  important 
in  a  strategic  point  of  view.  We  should  no  longer 
strive  to  protect  loyal  men  or  loyal  districts  in  the 
rebel  States.  We  should  mass  forces  upon  stra 
tegic  points  still  in  the  possession  of  the  enemy ; 
attempt  first  the  reduction  of  those  places  which  are 
vulnerable  to  a  combined  attack  by  the  army  and 
the  navy ;  and  henceforth,  without  fear  or  appre 
hension,  we  should  admit  to  ourselves,  and  in  our 
official  intercourse  with  foreign  nations  we  should 
declare,  that,  while  the  end  of  the  rebellion  cannot 
be  foreseen,  the  war  for  the  Union  will  be  prosecuted 
until  the  power  of  the  government  is  re-established. 

14 


210  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING   THE 

In  time,  —  we  cannot  foresay  how  long  the  time, — 
the  river  will  be  opened  to  commerce,  and  for  the 
purposes  of  war  ;  Texas  and  Arkansas  will  be  sepa 
rated  from  the  Confederacy ;  Mobile,  Charleston,  and 
Wilmington  will  be  taken  ;  the  blockade  will  become 
more  and  more  effectual ;  and  the  world,  including 
traitors  in  the  North  and  jealous  enemies  in  Europe, 
will  admit  that  the  rebellion  is  thenceforward  with 
out  hope.  Industry  and  finance  will  be  relieved; 
cotton  will  find  its  way  to  greedy  and  well-paying 
markets ;  the  country  west  of  the  Mississippi  will  be 
opened  to  all  trade,  except  in  articles  contraband  of 
war;  and  the  national  credit  will  be  restored  at 
home  and  abroad.  The  end  of  the  war  may  not  be 
reached  even  then.  Richmond  may  continue  as 
the  rebel  capital.  It  may  even  be  wise  to  post 
pone  the  active  siege  of  that  city  until  the  Con 
federacy  is  severed  by  a  second  line  from  Mobile 
to  East  Tennessee.  During  the  present  year,  we 
ought  to  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  the 
possession  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  capture  of 
the  cities  of  Charleston,  Wilmington,  and  Mobile ; 
and,  with  these  results  attained,  enough  will  have 
been  done  to  render  the  future  reasonably  secure.  • 

The  successes  of  the  year  1862  were  not  less 
important  in  character,  nor  less  difficult  in  accom 
plishment  ;  and  it  may  therefore  be  anticipated 
reasonably,  that,  in  the  year  1863,  the  rebellion  will 
be  pressed  back  upon  the  interior  of  the  cotton 
region  east  of  the  Mississippi  River. 

In  assigning  the  entire  year  to  the  work  of  open 
ing  the  river  and  securing  the  Atlantic  coast,  it  is 
not  assumed  that  so  much  time  is  to  be  used  in  these 


FURTHER  PROSECUTION   OF  THE   WAR  211 

several  enterprises ;  but  there  will  certainly  be  no 
ground  for  apprehension  if  the  year  should  be  so 
required. 

Although  our  previous  attempts  upon  Richmond 
have  been  unsuccessful,  no  just  inference  can  be 
drawn  from  these  failures  as  to  the  strength  of  the 
place,  or  our  fortunes  in  the  future  concerning  its 
capture.  The  city  is  strong  in  its  isolation,  and 
the  character  of  the  country  on  the  north  and  north 
west  affords  reasonable  security  against  attacks 
from  the  land  side  ;  but,  from  its  position  at  the  head 
of  a  navigable  river,  it  is  exposed  necessarily  to  cap 
ture  from  the  sea.  Whenever  its  railway  connec 
tions  with  the  South  and  West  are  permanently 
interrupted,  it  will  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  besie 
gers.  Again,  river  fortifications  are  quite  generally 
staked  upon  the  fortunes  of  a  field-fight.  In  the 
absence  of  Fort  Darling  and  other  fortifications 
upon  the  James,  our  gunboats  might  ascend  to 
Richmond  without  engaging  the  enemy  upon  land. 
We  shall  be  compelled  to  flank  the  fort  by  land,  and 
the  enemy  will  have  no  resource  but  to  engage  us 
in  the  open  country.  If  we  have  the  power  to  take 
Richmond  in  the  absence  of  Fort  Darling,  its  exist 
ence  can  only  work  delay. 

With  an  army  in  the  angle  between  the  rivers, 
supported  by  gunboats  (which  need  not  be  iron 
clad),  we  are  in  the  most  secure  position  possible. 
A  successful  defence  ought  to  be  made  against  an 
army  numerically  twice  as  strong  as  our  own;  A 
defeat  could  only  result  from  cowardice,  incapacity, 
or  treason.  When  the  position  shall  have  been 
sagaciously  chosen  and  taken,  we  may  wait  the 


212  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING   THE 

progress  of  events  at  Richmond,  and  elsewhere  along 
the  theatre  of  war,  or  we  may  advance  immediately 
to  the  conquest  of  the  city.  It  is  assumed  that  the 
position  indicated  should  be  taken  at  once,  inas 
much  as  the  rebels  will  then  be  compelled  to 
strengthen  Richmond  by  the  withdrawal  of  forces 
from  the  line  of  the  Rappahannock,  and  even  from 
the  Gulf  coast,  or  they  will  abandon  Richmond 
at  once.  It  would  seem  that  an  army  of  fifty  thou 
sand  men  at  the  point  indicated,  supported  from 
the  river,  would  be  proof  against  any  successful 
attack  ;  yet  the  presence  of  such  a  force  at  a  position 
so  near  the  capital  of  the  rebel  States  would  compel 
the  rebel  leaders  to  hold  in  reserve  at  Richmond, 
or  its  immediate  vicinity,  at  least  one  hundred 
thousand  men.  By  this  we  gain  in  numerical 
strength;  and  the  facility  with  which  we  could 
transport  troops  from  the  Chesapeake,  the  Potomac, 
and  Fortress  Monroe  would  fill  the  enemies  of  the 
republic  with  the  most  serious  and  overpressing 
apprehensions. 

It  would  seem,  then,  to  be  a  military  necessity 
that  such  naval  force  as  may  be  reqiiired  should  at 
once  appear  in  the  James  River  upon  the  line  indi 
cated,  that  the  rebels  may  be  kept  from  occupying 
strategic  points  essential  to  the  execution  of  the  plan 
suggested.  It  would  not  follow,  nor  ought  it  to 
follow, — unless  the  rebel  force  in  Richmond  was 
greatly  reduced,  so  as  to  invite  and  assure  the 
success  of  an  attack, — that  an  attempt  would  be 
made  immediately  upon  the  rebel  capital.  Delay 
would  be  advantageous  in  some  respects.  We 
compel  the  rebels  to  concentrate  for  the  defence 


FUETHER  PROSECUTION  OP  THE  WAR.     213 

of  Richmond,  we  use  the  season  for  the  capture  of 
the  Southern  ports;  and,  succeeding  in  these  un 
dertakings,  we  render  the  occupation  of  Richmond 
by  June  or  July  next  the  most  probable  event  of 
the  future. 

If,  after  the  capture  of  the  cities  of  the  Gulf  and 
the  consequent  breaking  of  the  lines  of  railway,  we 
are  to  fail  in  reducing  Richmond,  then  it  is  assur 
edly  true  that  a  winter  and  spring  campaign  upon 
that  city  would  also  prove  a  failure.  If  we  contest 
for  the  Mississippi  River,  for  Mobile,  for  Charles 
ton,  for  Wilmington,  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of  things 
that  we  should  fail  everywhere.  Indeed,  the  proba 
bility  of  success  is  so  great  that  we  may  feel  assured 
of  the  accomplishment  of  all  these  undertakings 
during  the  first  half  of  the  present  year. 

These  things  successfully  accomplished,  and  it 
might  be  wise  to  delay  the  attack  upon  Richmond 
even  beyond  the  year  1863.  The  railways  through 
the  South  should  be  cut  and  destroyed  for  long 
distances ;  the  iron  removed  or  rendered  useless ; 
every  bridge  that  can  be  reached  should  be  burned, 
or  otherwise  destroyed  ;  the  navigable  rivers  should 
be  traversed  by  armed  boats ;  and  East  Tennessee 
occupied,  and  its  railway  communications  with 
Richmond  broken  up.  The  capture  of  Charleston 
and  the  other  ports  of  the  Atlantic,  together  with 
the  opening  of  the  Mississippi  River,  will  satisfy  the 
country  and  the  army  that  the  campaign  has  been 
successful ;  while  foreign  nations  will  be  compelled 
to  admit  in  their  policy,  if  not  in  words,  that  the 
restoration  of  the  Union  is  an  accomplished  fact. 
Time,  decision,  energy,  and  the  capacity  to  use 


214  SUGGESTIONS   CONCERNING  THE 

circumstances  aright,  to  foresee  events  that  in  the 
laws  of  reason  and  of  human  logic  are  inevitable, 
will  do  the  rest.  If,  moreover,  we  capture  Mobile 
and  Wilmington,  who  will  ask  whether  Richmond 
can  be  taken  ?  Richmond  can  only  capitulate,  and 
the  rebel  leaders  can  only  choose  between  capture 
and  flight.  It  might,  indeed,  happen  that  the  at 
tempt  to  advance  this  policy  would  lead  the  rebels, 
under  the  influence  of  despair  and  hope,  to  abandon 
Richmond;  or,  withdrawing  the  body  of  the  army 
southward,  to  trust  the  defence  of  their  capital  to 
fortresses,  intrenchments,  and  the  soldiers  within 
the  fortifications.  This  policy  would  still  leave 
us  the  advantage,  as,  by  falling  upon  the  railways 
in  the  rear  of  their  army,  we  could  separate  Rich 
mond  from  the  Confederacy.  Upon  the  basis  laid 
down,  it  would  seem  incredible  to  history  that  the 
spring  and  early  summer  should  have  passed  away, 
and  the  rebel  authority  continue  as  it  is  at  this 
moment. 

The  policy,  then,  to  which  these  suggestions  lead, 
embodied  in  propositions,  may  be  stated  thus  :  — 

I.  Open  the  Mississippi  River. 

II.  Menace  Richmond  with  a  formidable  naval 
force  upon  the  James  River,  and  a  formidable  land 
force  upon  the  angle  between  the  James  and  the 
Appomattox ;  and  be  prepared  to  support  this  force 
from  the  Potomac  and  other  points,  should  it  be 
deemed  necessary  for  defence,  or  to  advance  upon 
Richmond  if  the  rebel  army  in  that  city  should  be 
materially  diminished. 

III.  The  capture  of  the  ports  named  by  sudden 
attacks  of  large  forces  on  land  and  water ;  regarding 


FURTHER   PROSECUTION   OF  THE   WAR.  215 

the  capture  of  Richmond  as  a  thing  to  be  desired 
and  attempted  should  circumstances  so  invite,  but 
not  to  be  pursued  as  an  object  of  the  war,  nor  as  in 
any  considerable  degree  essential  to  the  ultimate 
success  of  the  national  arms.  * 

IV.  The  abandonment  of  the  attempt  to  protect 
loyal  men  in  the  rebel  States.  Nor  should  any 
effort  be  made  to  induce  such  to  identify  themselves 
with  the  government  until  our  successes  and  the 
experience  of  the  rebel  population  shall  have  made 
it  safe  for  loyal  people  to  announce  and  defend 
their  opinions  without  the  active  protection  of  the 
national  government.  When  the  rebel  power  shall 
have  been  broken,  the  opportunity  for  the  free  ex 
pression  of  opinion  will  gradually  return  to  the 
people.  Then  such  free  expression  will  not  be  at 
tended  with  personal  danger ;  but,  until  that  time 
arrives,  it  is  wise  for  our  government  to  direct  its 
military  operations  without  regard  to  the  existence 
of  loyal  men,  discountenancing  expressions  of  loy 
alty  in  the  rebel  districts  rather  than  giving  en 
couragement  to  them.  The  rebel  territory  is  so  vast 
that  it  is  simply  impossible  to  give  personal  or  even 
local  protection  to  the  people.  We  should  at 
tempt —  (1)  To  occupy  so  much  rebel  territory  as  is 
essential  to  the  protection  of  the  loyal  States,  and 
nothing  more ;  (2)  To  seize  such  strategic  points  as 
may  be  necessary  for  present  or  future  operations ; 
(3)  To  penetrate  the  rebel  territory  for  the  purpose 
of  breaking  and  destroying  lines  of  communication.  • 
When  these  things  shall  have  been  successfully 
accomplished,  the  rebel  army  will  be  separated  into 
parts;  its  sources  of  supply  cut  off;  its  ultimate 
annihilation  certain. 


216 


THE  POWER  OF  THE   GOVERNMENT  TO 
SUPPRESS  THE  REBELLION. 


DELIVERED   BEFORE    THE   NATIONAL  UNION  LEAGUE  ASSO 
CIATION,    WASHINGTON,   D.C.,  JUNE  16,  1863. 

FT  would  be  unkind  in  me,  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
-••  if  I  were  to-night,  under  the  circumstances  both 
of  the  climate  and  of  public  affairs,  to  make  a  long 
speech,  even  to  indulgent  hearers. 

Since  the  rebellion  opened,  I  have  followed  but 
one  line  of  conduct  in  regard  to  whatever  I  have 
thought,  done,  or  said  in  reference  to  public  affairs. 
I  do  not  propose  any  departure  from  that  course 
to-night.  It  is  simply  this :  to  give  that  advice  and 
counsel  which  the  exigencies  of  the  country  demand, 
without  regard  to  its  effect  upon  myself  or  upon  the 
opinions,  purposes,  principles,  or  feelings  of  other 
men. 

The  crisis  is  too  important  to  allow  any  man  to 
deviate  from  that  course  of  conduct ;  and  what  I 
have  said  and  done,  and  what  I  shall  say  or  do,  all 
turns  upon  one  idea,  and  has  in  the  end  but  one 
purpose ;  and  that  is,  the  extinction  of  the  institution 
of  slavery,  as  the  means  by  which  the  rebellion  is 
to  be  quelled,  the  Union  restored,  and  civil  war  for 
ever  after  prevented.  Believing  this  to  be  the  neces 
sary  and  inevitable  consequence  of  the  overthrow 
of  that  institution,  and  educated  as  I  have  been  in 


THE   POWER   OP   THE   GOVERNMENT,   ETC.         217 

the  traditions  and  histories  of  our  country,  —  hav 
ing  observed  to  some  extent,  with  such  faculties  as 
I  could  command,  the  greatness  of  the  republic,  and 
conceived  to  some  extent  its  nature,  grandeur,  and 
power,  —  if  I  believed  in  the  system  of  slavery,  I 
should  yet  feel  called  upon  to  surrender  it,  and  to 
aid  in  its  destruction,  in  order  that  the  republic 
might  live.  If  two  years  ago  it  were  not  admitted 
that  this  was  a  contest  of  life  or  death  in  which  we 
are  engaged,  no  sane  man  can  to-day  have  any  doubt 
upon  that  point. 

But  there  can  be  no  concession,  there  can  be  no 
compromise,  there  can  be  no  arrangement,  there  can 
be  no  treaty,  nor  can  there  be  any  return  of  Jefferson 
Davis  and  his  allies,  or  of  the  slaveholders,  as  slave 
holders,  into  this  Union. 

The  government  has  not  been  framed  which  can 
sustain  a  struggle  such  as  inevitably  must  result 
from  the  existence  within  its  limits  of  any  consider 
able  number  of  men  who  entertain  the  ideas  which 
these  men  entertain.  The  war  that  is  now  desolat 
ing  our  land,  is  not  the  result  of  the  preaching  of 
anybody,  North  or  South.  It  is  not  the  result 
of  what  has  been  done  in  Congress,  or  of  what 
Congress  has  failed  to  do ;  and,  if  you  will  search 
the  records  of  time,  you  will  find  that  this  rebellion 
in  which  we  are  engaged,  this  war  which  we  are 
prosecuting  hand  to  hand  with  the  enemies  of  the 
republic,  is  the  most  logical  and  most  inevitable 
of  which  history  gives  us  any  account.  It  is  not 
spasmodic  nor  exceptional.  It  is  necessary,  because 
we  founded  a  government  upon  antagonistic  and 
hostile  ideas.  You  might  as  well  hope  to  establish 


218      THE  POWER  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 

an  harmonious  and  enduring  church  upon  the  Koran 
and  the  Bible,  as  to  expect  to  maintain,  through 
successive  ages,  institutions  and  forms  of  govern 
ment  based  in  part  upon  the  equality  of  man,  and 
in  part  upon  the  subjugation  of  man  to  tyranny. 
In  saying  this,  I  make  no  reflections  upon  the  men 
who  framed  this  government.  If,  on  the  one  hand, 
the  men  of  the  North  had  believed  that  slavery 
would  be  extended  and  perpetuated,  they  never 
would  have  put  their  hands  to  the  compact ;  and, 
if  the  men  of  the  South  at  that  day  had  believed  in 
the  institution  of  slavery,  they  had  too  much  respect 
for  the  truth  to  have  asked  their  friends  in  the 
North  to  form  an  alliance  with  them.  The  men  of 
the  North  and  South,  with  few  exceptions,  believed 
that  slavery  was  temporary,  transitory,  and  even 
then  passing  away  ;  and  that  liberty  was  permanent 
and  universal  in  its  application  to  all  men. 

Some  of  those  whom  I  address  remember  the 
memorable  event  of  the  presence  of  the  Hungarian 
exile,  Kossuth,  in  our  country.  It  was  my  fortune 
to  introduce  him  in  Fanueil  Hall,  in  Massachusetts ; 
and  I  recall  to-night  the  opening  passage  of  his 
speech,  not  in  language,  but  in  meaning.  Said  he  : 
"  You  err  in  speaking  of  '  American  liberty.'  You 
should  say,  i  Liberty  in  America.'  There  can  be  no 
such  thing  as  American  liberty.  God  is  God : 
liberty  is  liberty." 

Now,  then,  reviewing  the  past,  I  can  but  come 
to  the  conclusion,  that  one  great  source  of  our 
failure  is,  that  we  have  undertaken  to  establish  here, 
upon  this  continent,  American  liberty,  and  have 
confined  its  application  to  men  of  a  particular  color, 


TO  SUPPRESS  THE  REBELLION.        219 

and  have,  acting  upon  that  idea,  disregarded  entirely 
the  rights  of  one-eighth  of  the  people  occupying  the 
territory  of  the  United  States.  Believing,  as  I  do, 
in  an  overruling  Providence,  I  cannot  doubt,  that 
the  suffering  through  which  we  are  called  to  pass,  is, 
in  some  way  or  other,  a  punishment  upon  the  nation 
for  its  great  sin  in  this  respect.  Therefore,  if  I  am 
either  a  patriot  or  a  Christian,  it  is  my  duty  to 
declare  that  there  can  be  no  peace  until  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery  is  exterminated. 

Thus  much,  then,  for  the  cause  of  the  war  and 
the  means  by  which  we  are  to  secure  peace  and  per 
manent  prosperity. 

I  doubt  not  we  are  to-day  passing  through  the 
crisis  of  the  war.  This  great  contest  was  not  to  be 
settled  by  a  battle  or  a  campaign ;  but  it  required 
battles,  campaigns,  time,  and  exhaustion.  We  have 
had  exhaustion,  battles,  and  campaigns.  Time  will 
bring  us  to  the  end  of  the  war  by  the  subjugation 
of  the  rebels.  Whether  they  be  in  Pennsylvania 
or  Maryland  or  Virginia,  our  determination  is  still 
the  same,  —  to  press  upon  them  with  undiminished 
power,  and  compel  them  finally,  as  finally  they 
must,  to  yield  to  right,  to  justice,  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  to  the  establishment  of  the  principles  of 
liberty  as  the  birthright  of  every  man. 

It  has  been  a  prominent  feature  of  the  political 
contest  arising  out  of  the  rebellion  to  complain  of 
the  administration  of  public  affairs. 

I  do  not  doubt  that  we  have  made  many  mistakes 
and  committed  many  acts  which  it  would  have  been 
well  to  have  avoided,  and  that  we  ha\e  omitted  to 
do  many  things  that  should  have  been  done.  But 


220      THE  POWER  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 

* 

these  are  comparatively  incidental,  and  do  not  affect 
the  main  result. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  rebels  have  been  disap 
pointed.  They  have  failed  again  and  again  to 
accomplish  what  they  had  expected.  When,  in 
February,  1861,  Breckinridge,  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  as  Yice-President  of  the  United  States, 
declared  Abraham  Lincoln  President,  he  surren 
dered  the  cause  of  the  rebels,  with  which  he  had 
been  identified,  betraying  at  once  his  associate 
traitors  and  the  country  which  had  honored  him. 
When  he  announced  Abraham  Lincoln  as  President  • 
of  the  United  States,  he  gave  up  the  contest,  with 
reference  to  the  result ;  for  it  made  the  war  consti 
tutional  and  for  the  Union,  and  himself  and  his 
associates  traitors.  They  are  to-day  dying  under 
the  effect  of  the  declaration  Breckinridge  then 
made ;  for  he  then  and  there  acknowledged  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  President  of  the  United  States 
according  to  the  Constitution. 

The  rebels  have  been  deceived  by  a  few  men  in 
the  North,  as  to  the  purposes  of  the  North.  They 
were  led  to  expect  that  the  controversy  would  be 
settled  without  a  resort  to  arms. 

I  was  a  member  of  the  Peace  Congress,  and  I 
well  recollect  what  they  desired.  It  was  that  the 
radical  men,  as  they  were  called,  should  give  a 
pledge  that  there  should  be  no  war,  let  come  what 
else  might.  Mr.  Seddon,  now  a  member  of  Davis's 
Cabinet,  spoke  fifteen  minutes  in  an  imploring  speech, 
asking  for  a  declaration,  that,  whatever  else  might 
happen,  there  should  be  110  war.  For  one,  I  left 
them  in  no  doubt  as  to  what  my  ideas  were,  by 


TO  SUPPRESS  THE  REBELLION.        221 

declaring,  that,  if  they  persisted  in  secession,  one 
of  two  things  would  happen,  —  either  the  armies  of 
the  North  would  march  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  or 
the  armies  of  the  South  would  march  to  the  great 
lakes.  The  former  has  been  accomplished,  and  the 
rebels  are  now  attempting  the  latter.  They  will  be 
again  disappointed. 

They  have  been  deceived,  also,  in  the  course  Eng 
land  has  taken,  not  because  there  was  lacking  in 
the  British  Government  and .  aristocracy  a  disposi 
tion  to  favor  the  South,  but  because  neither  they 
nor  the  British  Government  took  into  consideration, 
that  the  President  of  the  United  States,  on  the  first 
day  of  January,  1863,  would  pronounce  emancipa 
tion  in  the  seceding  States. 

That  proclamation  has,  I  doubt  not,  changed  the 
public  sentiment  of  England,  giving  encouragement 
to  the  men  and  the  cause  that  favored  the  Union. 
Thus,  too,  has  the  proclamation  prevented  the  Brit 
ish  Government  from  entering  into  any  open  alliance 
with  the  rebels.  This  proclamation  is,  in  a  certain 
sense,  our  security  with  the  world  ;  and,  if  the  world 
will  allow  us  to  carry  on  this  contest  in  our  own  way 
and  in  our  own  time,  there  is  no  doubt  of  the  result. 
Great  Britain,  I  doubt  not,  is  now  considering -what, 
in  case  of  war  with  this  country,  she  could  do  ? 
If  she  should  capture  New  York  and  destroy  the 
cities  along  the  coast,  still  there  is  capacity  to  navi 
gate  the  ocean,  to  carry  on  the  business  of  priva 
teering,  so  that  the  four  million  tons  of  British 
shipping  shall  disappear.  It  will  be  in  our  power, 
in  case  of  war,  to  shut  up  the  British  people  upon 
the  British  isles,  and  dictate  to  them,  the  thirty 


222  THE   POWER   OF   THE   GOVERNMENT 

million  there,  the  per-diem  allowance  of  bread  they 
shall  eat.  This  power  is  good  security  for  peace. 
I  am  not  for  war :  I  am  for  peace.  I  believe,  how 
ever,  that  Great  Britain  has  pursued  an  unjust 
policy  in  oar  affairs,  which,  if  it  be  not  in  some 
way  or  other,  and  that  speedily,  atoned  for,  will 
result  in  war.  I  ask  whether  it  is  in  the  nature  of 
a  nation,  with  a  people  twenty  million  strong,  —  sup 
posing  that  the  South  has  parted  from  us  for  ever, — 
soon  to  be  thirty  and  ere  long  to  be  fifty  million, 
to  carry  in  remembrance,  and  unatoned  for,  the 
circumstances,  that  Great  Britain  allowed  vessels, 
built  by  and  according  to  the  rules  of  naval  archi 
tecture,  to  depart  from  one  British  port,  seamen  to 
depart  from  another,  ammunition  and  guns  on  Brit 
ish  isles  to  be  placed  upon  these  vessels,  and  thus 
British  ships,  manned  by  British  subjects,  to  be 
clandestinely  brought  out  of  British  ports  ;  and 
then  to  submit  silently  to  the  claims  before  the 
world  that  that  government  has  no  responsibility 
for  these  things,  for  the  depredations  committed  by 
these  vessels.  It  is  not  necessary  to  know  what 
the  laws  of  nations  are  or  are  not.  I  know  per 
fectly  well  that  if  I  sell  a  man  burglarious  weapons 
by  day,  and  harbor  him  at  night,  and  he  robs  and 
steals,  some  responsibility  rests  upon  me. 

Resuming  the  consideration  of  domestic  affairs, 
let  me  call  your  attention  to  one  possible  difficulty 
before  us.  That  possible  difficulty  is  the  return  of 
the.  seceded  States  to  this  Union  as  slave  States. 
I  have  looked  with  interest  towards  Louisiana,  at 
the  indications  there  made  that  the  loyal  people 
of  that  State  are  about  to  frame  a  new  constitution 


TO  SUPPRESS  THE  REBELLION.        223 

and  ask  for  admission  into  the  Union.  The  policy 
of  allowing  these  eleven  seceded  States  to  return  to 
the  Union  with  the  institution  of  slavery  upon  them, 
after  all  the  experience  we  have  had,  after  all  the 
sacrifices  we  have  made  in  men  and  treasure,  is  to 
receive  into  the  Union  the  cause  of  all  our  woes. 
I  do  not  desire  to  see  the  return  of  these  States  to 
the  Union,  unless  they  return  with  republican  forms 
of  government.  I  trust  that  the  time  will  come 
when  the  highest  tribunal  of  this  country  can  be 
sufficiently  bold  to  declare  that  where  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery  exists,  there  a  republican  form  of 
government  cannot  be.  Such  an  opinion  would  be 
a  glory  to  the  age.  It  would  be  a  triumph  worthy 
of  the  sacrifices  we  have  made,  if  these  eleven 
States  can  return  one  by  one  into  the  Union  as  free 
and  redeemed  under  the  Constitution.  That  instru 
ment  was  framed  to  secure  freedom,  justice,  and 
equality  among  men.  But  what  a  calamity  it  would 
be  to  us,  what  a  sin,  if  we  were  to  receive  these 
eleven  States,  with  all  their  crimes  upon  them,  to 
be  again  the  source  of  innumerable  woes  to  future 
generations  !  Consider,  also,  my  friends,  that  after 
what  you  have  done,  if  you  in  any  way  counte 
nance  the  reconstruction  of  the  Union  with  slavery 
existing  in  these  States,  you  will  become  responsi 
ble,  not  only  for  the  civil  wars,  but  for  the  servile 
wars,  which  inevitably  must  follow.  Do  you  think 
that  when  you  have  trained  the  colored  men  in 
the  arts  of  war,  and  given  them  muskets,  arrayed 
them  against  their  masters,  that  they  are  to  be 
bound  in  chains  ?  No,  no,  no.  If  there  be  a  man 
here,  or  in  the  North,  who  is  ready  to  accept  Vir- 


224      THE  POWER  OP  THE  GOVERNMENT 

ginia  or  South  Carolina  with  the  institution  of 
slavery,  then,  here  and  now  in  advance  of  that 
crime,  I  charge  that  he,  after  the  measure  of  his 
capacity  and  influence,  is  responsible  for  the  civil 
and  servile  wars  that  shall  follow. 

I  am  for  the  restoration  of  the  government  as 
a  government  of  peace,  and  as  a  government  of 
equal  and  sovereign  States,  and  as  a  government 
under  which  those  rights  that  are  named  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  shall  be  secured  to  all 
the  people.  Until  we  have  such  a  Union,  there  can 
be  no  peace.  But  I  expect  something,  my  friends, 
from  those  in  the  North  who,  even  now,  resist  the 
policy  of  the  administration,  and  denounce  the  con 
duct  of  the  war.  The  test  to  which  Northern  men 
of  the  Democratic  party  are  now  put,  in  the  fact 
that  the  capital  of  the  great  State,  of  Pennsylvania 
is  menaced,  will  bring  forth  their  patriotism,  possi 
bly  in  some  degree  latent  hitherto.  The  test  will 
develop,  I  doubt  not,  the  spirit  of  patriotism  among 
those  whom  we  have  been  led  to  regard  as  the 
friends  and  allies  of  the  South.  If  there  are  men 
in  the  North  who,  under  the  banner  of  the  so-called 
Democracy,  have  given  their  hands  against  the 
administration,  there  must  be  many  who,  in  this 
exigency,  will  rally  under  the  old  banner  of  the 
country.  To  such  we  have  a  right  to  appeal,  under 
all  circumstances,  to  support  the  administration. 
In  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  let  them  say,  to-day, 
whether  they  will  sacrifice  the  Union  that  their 
party  may  have  a  party  existence,  or  save  the 
Union  first,  and  then  afterwards  identify  themselves 
with  parties,  according  to  opinions  and  principles  ? 


TO  SUPPRESS  THE  REBELLION.        225 

Hence  it  becomes  those  men  in  the  North  who  are 
for  the  Union  to  openly  declare  and  maintain  their 
opinions. 

I,  for  one,  was  opposed  to  the  election  of  Mr. 
Seymour,  Governor  of  New  York ;  but  I  hope  and 
believe  that  he  will  not  be  found  wanting  in  this 
hour,  this  emergency.  I  hope  and  believe  that  he 
will  rally  the  immense  powers  of  the  Empire  State 
to  the  support  of  the  Union,  without  regard  to  the 
question  whether  the  administration  is  or  is  not  an 
administration  of  his  choice. 

In  approaching  the  conclusion  of  my  remarks, 
I  invite  you  to  consider  the  aspect  of  affairs,  in  their 
relation  to  the  past,  and  with  reference  to  the 
future. 

And,  first,  is  not  the  government,  in  its  military 
power  and  in  its  finances,  to  be  exhausted  by  the 
prosecution  of  the  war  ?  If  a  great  rebellion  like 
this  shall  be  crushed  in  three  or  five  or  seven 
years,  it  will  be  the  most  marked  event  in  military 
annals.  Yet,  with  many  reverses,  such  has  been 
our  success,  upon  the  whole,  that  there  are  sufficient 
reasons  for  believing,  that,  in  the  first  three  years 
of  this  administration,  the  rebellion  will  have  been 
effectually  overthrown.  But,  it  may  be  asked,  can 
we  endure  such  delays,  and  sacrifices  of  labor  and 
life,  and  expenditures  of  money,  as  the  next  twelve 
months  will  require  ?  Most  assuredly  we  can,  and 
years  more  of  such  sacrifices  and  expenditures,  if 
the  spirit  of  the  people  be  not  broken  by  maladmin 
istration  of  civil  or  military  affairs.  With  success, 
there  will  come  the  restoration  of  national  credit  at 
home ;  with  success,  there  will  be  opportunity  to 

15 


THE  POWER  OP  THE   GOVERNMENT 

negotiate  loans  abroad;  with  success,  immigration 
will  increase,  so  that  our  agriculture  and  manufac 
tures  will  enjoy  their  accustomed  prosperity ;  with 
success,  if  it  be  only  by  securing  the  navigation  of 
the  Mississippi  River,  there  will  follow  a  supply 
of  one-half  to  one  million  bales  of  cotton ;  with 
success,  there  will  be  an  opportunity  to  reduce  the 
army  in  the  field,  or  to  recruit  from  a  class  whose 
services  to  the  country  are  less  valuable  as  producers 
than  the  services  of  the  men  now  engaged  in  mili 
tary  life. 

There  should  be  no  hesitation  about  employing 
colored  men  as  soldiers ;  indeed,  it  is  now  certain, 
that,  for  a  few  months,  the  army  will  fall  largely 
below  its  present  force,  if  such  persons  are  not 
received.  The  chief  opposition  to  the  policy  of 
enrolling  black  men  comes  from  those  who  sympa 
thize  with  the  rebels.  Their  opposition  admits  of 
a  ready  solution.  As  slavery  was  the  cause  which 
led  the  slaveholders  to  inaugurate  the  rebellion, 
so  the  unpaid  labor  of  slaves  is  the  chief  support 
of  the  rebel  'armies  in  the  field.  Emancipation 
strikes  at  the  overthrow  of  the  rebellion  by  depriving 
the  rebels  of  the  benefits  of  slave  labor.  If  the 
government  goes  onward  one  step,  and  enlists  these 
emancipated  men,  the  rebels  are  not  only  deprived 
of  the  support  heretofore  derived  from  slave  labor, 
but  they  are  destined  to  meet  these  very  slaves  in 
fair  fight,  where  slave  and  master  for  once  are  on 
terms  of  equality.  This  war  is  to  go  on.  The 
North  cannot  arrest  it  without  yielding  to  the  de 
mands  of  the  rebels ;  and  mothers,  fathers,  wives, 
and  sisters  have  only  to  say  that  they  are  willing 


TO  SUPPRESS  THE  REBELLION.        227 

that  two  hundred  thousand  colored  men  shall  bare 
their  bosoms  to  the  deadly  blast,  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  they  prefer  the  unnecessary  sacrifice  of 
their  own  husbands,  sons,  and  brothers.  It  is  the 
demand  of  humanity  and  justice  that  the  colored 
men  should  participate  in  this  great  struggle.  They 
are  four  million.  They  are  a  race.  They  are  Amer 
icans  by  birth.  They  have  a  future  on  this  conti 
nent.  They  are  men.  It  is  at  once  a  duty  and  a 
right  that  they  participate  in  a  struggle  which  prom 
ises  so  much  of  good  or  evil  to  them  and  their  de 
scendants.  If  the  country  is  to  be  free,  they  share 
most  largely  in  that  freedom.  If  slavery  ceases,  the 
colored  race  advances  to  a  new  dignity  among 
the  peoples  of  the  earth.  If  the  slaveholder  is  to  be 
exterminated,  who  more  than  the  slave  should  share 
in  the  dispensation  of  a  divine  justice  due  to  the 
master  as  the  oppressor  of  the  black  man,  and  as 
the  author  of  an  attempt  to  overthrow  a  government 
which  for  nearly  a  century  has  vindicated  its  right 
to  be  classed  among  the  best  governments  of  any 
age  or  country? 

If  the  colored  men  participate  in  the  great  struggle, 
and  by  their  deeds  establish  their  right  to  freedom, 
they  bind  the  country  to  them  with  bands  which 
cannot  be  severed.  It  does  not  follow  that  political 
rights  are  to  be  conceded  to  these  people.  The 
future  will  settle  every  question  of  that  sort ;  but 
they  should  have  the  opportunity  on  the  field  to 
assert  their  manhood  and  their  right  to  a  place  on 
this  continent.  The  enemies  of  freedom  in  the 
North  have  zealously  asserted  that  the  free  States 
would  be  cursed  by  the  immigration  of  the  colored 


228  THE   POWER   OF   THE   GOVERNMENT 

people.  The  continuance  of  slavery  is  the  only 
means  by  which  this  irrational  prophecy  can  be 
fulfilled.  Hence  the  desire  of  the  enemies  of  free 
dom  that  •  slavery  shall  continue  ;  hence  their  hos 
tility  to  the  President's  emancipation  policy ;  and 
hence  their  earnest  purpose  to  prevent  the  enrol 
ment  of  colored  men  in  the  armies  of  the  republic. 
In  justice  to  the  colored  race,  the  work  of  enrol 
ment  should  go  on ;  as  a  wise  expediency  on  the 
part  of  the  government,  the  work  of  enrolment 
should  go  on.  The  new  enrolment  of  citizens  will 
yield  but  few  trained  soldiers  before  August  or 
September.  During  the  summer  and  early  autumn, 
it  may  be  difficult  to  obtain  a  sufficient  number  of 
volunteers.  After  the  returned  soldiers  shall  have 
had  an  opportunity  to  rest  and  to  visit  their  friends, 
and  after  the  harvest  of  the  summer  is  over,  there 
will  be  no  lack  of  men  to  meet  the  wants  of  the 
country,  without  estimating  those  who  may  be  raised 
under  the  recent  act  of  Congress. 

But  the  chasm  of  three  to  six  months  must  be 
bridged.  The  summer  campaign  upon  the  lower 
Mississippi  and  upon  the  Gulf  coast  should  not  be 
left  for  white  soldiers  exclusively,  or  even  chiefly. 
The  nation  cannot  afford  in  a  life-contest  to  risk 
a  campaign,  or  to  sacrifice  in  pestilential  regions 
thousands  of  valuable  lives  to  the  prejudices  of 
fanatics  and  traitors,  who  seem  to  desire  no  success 
for  the  Union,  unless  it  is  equally  advantageous  to 
slavery. 

As  slavery  is  the  enemy  of  the  Union,  and  has 
ever  been  its  enemy  from  the  beginning,  so  now 
when  it  has  attempted  by  war  to  effect  its  destruc- 


TO  SUPPRESS  THE  REBELLION.        229 

tion,  the  supporters  of  slavery,  whether  they  are 
of  the  North  or  of  the  South,  are  necessarily  the 
enemies  of  the  Union.  Such  prefer  its  sacrifice, 
if  it  can  be  saved  only  by  the  emancipation  of  the 
slave  and  by  his  services  in  the  field. 

The  mode  of  raising  and  organizing  colored 
troops  is  not  unimportant.  A  certain  number  of 
thousands  can  be  raised  in  the  North ;  and  the  plan 
of  their  organization  may  be  essential  to  the  entire 
undertaking.  As  regiments,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
of  their  value.  They  are,  for  the  most  part,  men  of 
intelligence  and  courage.  Of  those  who  were  re 
cently  in  slavery,  this  cannot  with  safety  be  assumed 
generally.  It  is  practicable,  and  it  may  be  wise, 
to  organize  skeleton  regiments  in  the  North,  of  one 
hundred  or  two  hundred  men  each,  including  non 
commissioned  officers.  Such  regiments  can  be 
formed  speedily,  and  subjected  to  drill  and  disci 
pline.  They  may  then  be  sent  South  to  recruit 
from  those  of  their  brethren  who  have  come,  or  who 
may  hereafter  come,  within  our  lines. 

If  we  organize  a  force  of  one  hundred  thousand 
from  the  colored  race,  will  it  not  be  wise  to  dis 
tribute  among  the  whole  mass  those  who  may  be 
enlisted  in  the  North  ?  Will  it  not  happen  that  the 
men  from  the  North  will  be  able  to  inspire  their 
colored  brethren  with  confidence  in  the  purposes 
of  the  government?  Will  not  the  slaves,  fresh 
from  the  grasp  of  the  slaveholders,  be  more  rapidly 
educated  to  the  performance  of  their  duties  as  sol 
diers  and  men,  when  constantly  in  contact  with 
those  who  have  enjoyed  the  advantages  which  free 
dom  in  the  North  secures  even  to  the  negro  race  ? 


230      THE  POWER  OP  THE  GOVERNMENT 

And  will  there  not  be  security  that  the  whole  force 
will  perform  the  service  required  in  a  more  efficient 
manner  ?t 

There  is  no  reason,  in  the  nature  of  things,  why 
the  negro  should  not  become  a  good  soldier,  and 
there  is  no  reason  why  he  should  not  be  employed. 

If  there  are  men  who  expect  to  heal  the  division 
between  the  rebels  and  the  old  government,  they 
are  deluded;  if  they  do  not  so  believe,  and  yet 
represent  that  this  may  be  done,  then  they  are 
traitors  and  villains.  The  issue  is  a  plain  one. 
The  rebels  must  be  conquered,  subjugated,  destroyed, 
or  driven  out  of  the  country,  or  they  will  subjugate 
the  North  to  the  purposes  of  the  rebellion.  There 
is  no  room  for  compromise,  for  arrangement.  The 
question  is  one  of  power.  When  the  rebellion  is 
crushed,  when  the  rebel  leaders  are  exterminated 
or  driven  out  of  the  country,  there  will  be  no  reason 
why  the  States  now  controlled  by  traitors  may  not 
return  to  their  places  in  the  Union,  with  all  the 
rights  of  sovereign  States.  Thus  will  the  old  Union 
be  restored.  If  the  phrase,  "  the  restoration  of  the 
Union  as  it  was,"  means  the  return  of  Mississippi 
under  the  lead  of  traitors  who  now  represent  her  in 
the  rebel  government,  then  there  neither  can  nor 
ought  to  be  any  restoration  of  the  Union  ;  but,  when 
Mississippi  is  controlled  by  loyal  men,  there  will 
remain  no  reason  why  she  should  not  enjoy  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  a  sovereign  State. 

It  is  a  singular  coincidence,  that  the  enemies  of 
the  Union  in  the  North  and  the  rebels  in  the  South 
propose  to  construct  a  single  government,  with  the 
exception  of  New  England  ;  or  to  construct  a  South- 


TO  SUPPRESS  THE  REBELLION.        231 

ern  confederacy  and  a  Northern  confederacy,  in 
league  with  each  other,  —  New  England  to  be  ex 
cluded.  All  these  suggestions  are  the  suggestions 
of  traitors.  The  policy  of  these  men  is  to  change 
the  government  in  its  character  through  the  agencies 
of  separation,  war,  anarchy,  and  exhaustion,  by 
which  they  may  be  prepared  for  a  despotic  system, 
under  which  the  poorer  white  men  and  the  negroes 
of  the  South  and  the  laboring  classes  of  the  North 
can  be  subjected  to  the  domination  of  tyrants.  The 
security  of  the  government,  and  of  the  free  people 
of  the  North,  is  in  the  vigorous,  determined,  un 
yielding  prosecution  of  the  war.  If  we  are  pros 
perous,  let  there  be  no  disposition  to  make  terms, 
except  such  as  have  been  made  with  the  States  of 
Maryland  and  Missouri. 

If  we  are  unsuccessful,  then  apply  new  energy, 
raise  more  men,  and  by  our  persistency  demonstrate 
the  possibility  of  accomplishing  what  we  have  under 
taken.  In  the  line  of  this  policy  there  can  be  no 
failure. 

Next  to  the  military  operations,  the  condition 
and  management  of  the  finances  deserve  the  most 
anxious  consideration.  The  ways  and  means  of 
raising  money  upon  public  credit  belong  to  the  head 
of  the  Treasury  and  to  Congress ;  but  it  may  not  be 
amiss  to  suggest  the  sources  of  payment  which  the 
country  can  command.  Whatever  may  be  said  to 
the  contrary,  there  is  not  the  least  reason  for  believ 
ing  that  the  continuance  of  the  war  upon  the  present 
gigantic  scale  will  swell  the  public  debt  to  two 
thousand  million  of  dollars  until  we  are  far  advanced 
into  the  last  half  of  the  year  1864. 


232      THE  POWER  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 

If  we  estimate  the  sum  relatively,  and  consider 
the  increased  numbers,  wealth,  and  productive  power 
of  the  people,  our  indebtedness  will  be  less  in  1864 
or  1865  than  it  was  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution  or 
at  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812.  Measured  by  num 
bers,  it  is  only  equal  to  a  debt  of  two  hundred 
million  in  1788,  and  to  a  debt  of  four  or  five  hun 
dred  million  in  1815.  It  is  also  true  that  the 
capacity  of  the  same  population  to  produce  real 
wealth,  not  money  in  dollars,  whether  gold  or  paper, 
but  articles  of  subsistence  and  common  utility,  is 
twice  as  great  in  1863  as  it  was  in  1815.  Upon 
the  restoration  of  the  Union  and  the  return  of 
peace,  our  annual  revenues  from  present  sources 
alone  will  rise  to  three  hundred  million  dollars. 
If  we  allow  one  hundred  million  for  current  ex 
penses,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  million  for 
interest,  there  will  remain  eighty  million  for  the 
payment  of  the  .principal,  which  will  insure  the 
liquidation  of  the  public  debt  in  less  than  twenty 
years. 

If,  as  the  result  of  the  war,  cotton  shall  be  pro 
duced  hereafter  by  free  labor,  we  can  monopolize 
the  markets  of  the  world,  increase  our  product  in 
twenty  years  to  ten  million  bales  per  annum,  subject 
the  crop,  whether  for  domestic  or  foreign  use,  to 
a  tax  of  from  two  to  four  cents  per  pound,  and  defy 
competition.  Here  is  a  source  of  revenue  as  yet 
untouched,  which  will  yield,  in  the  first  year  of 
peaceful  labor,  from  thirty  to  fifty  million  of  dollars, 
to  be  augmented  in  less  than  twenty  years  at  least 
one  hundred  per  cent. 

No  human  power  can  anticipate  the  productive 


TO  SUPPRESS  THE  REBELLION.        233 

wealth  of  the  mines  of  gold  and  silver ;  but  it  is  not 
unreasonable  to  predict  that  the  annual  returns 
will  reach  four  hundred  million  by  the  year  1875. 
This  wealth  may  not  in  any  considerable  degree 
inure  directly  to  the  advantage  of  the  treasury ; 
but  so  vast  an  increase  of  the  precious  metals  will 
at  once  depreciate  the  currency  of  the  country  and 
the  world,  and  diminish  public  and  private  indebted 
ness,  by  allowing  the  debtor  to  meet  a  given  liability 
with  a  less  outlay  of  labor.  This  increase  and  de 
preciation  enables  the  laborers  and  capitalists  to 
meet  their  taxes  with  less  inconvenience.  It  only 
remains,  then,  for  those  charged  with  the  financial 
affairs  of  the  government  to  provide  means  of  rais 
ing  money  upon  the  public  credit.  We  offer  better 
security  for  our  indebtedness  than  was  ever  before 
offered  by  this  or  any  other  nation.  We  have  a 
large  industrious  population ;  we  have  vast  re 
sources  in  nature  in  the  old  States  ;  we  have  millions 
of  acres  of  fertile  land ;  we  have  mines  of  gold  and 
silver  which  will  verify  the  traditions  of  the  ages 
of  fable,  and  make  real  the  visions  of  romance ;  we 
have  a  monopoly  of  the  best  cotton-growing  lands 
of  the  world.  A  debt  of  two  thousand  million  of 
dollars  is  less  for  the  United  States  than  is  a  debt 
of  one  thousand  million  of  dollars  for  Great  Britain. 
This  would  be  true  in  an  almost  equal  degree  if 
the  effort  to  re-establish  the  Union  were  to  prove 
a  failure.  There  is,  therefore,  no  real  ground  for 
discouragement  in  our  military  or  financial  affairs. 
We  must,  however,  be  firm,  persistent,  unyielding 
in  our  efforts.  We  are  stronger  than  ever  before : 
the  South  isr  weaker  than  ever  before.  It  only 


234  THE  POWER   OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 

remains  for  us  to  do  those  things  which  a  wise  fore 
cast  dictates. 

We  must  not  think  of  a  peace  as  the  price  of 
separation  or  as  the  result  of  a  treaty.  Let  the 
war  be  prosecuted  with  all  the  power  which  the  peo 
ple  can  command,  until  the  right  of  this  nation  to 
exist  is  fully  vindicated.  Let  the  war  be  prosecuted 
until  the  rebellion  is  overthrown.  Let  the  war  be 
prosecuted  until  the  Constitution  is  recognized  in 
the  rebel  States  as  the  supreme  law  of  the  land. 
The  object  of  the  war  has  not  been  changed,  nor 
can  it  be  changed.  That  object  must  ever  be  the 
restoration  of  the  Union ;  for  when  the  rebellion  is 
overthrown,  when  the  rebel  States  are  controlled 
by  loyal  people,  and  the  administration  of  public 
affairs  is  intrusted  to  loyal-minded  men,  they  will 
return  to  the  Union  upon  those  conditions,  and 
those  only,  which  are  imposed  by  the  existing  Con 
stitution. 

The  government  must  employ  all  the  means  at 
its  command  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion. 
It  is,  therefore,  a  duty  to  augment  our  own  power 
to  the  largest  possible  degree,  and  to  do  all  that 
civilization  justifies  to  weaken  the  resources  and 
diminish  the  capacity  of  the  public  enemy. 

Hence  come  the  right  and  the  duty  to  declare, 
that,  in  the  eye  of  the  nation,  slavery  no  longer 
exists ;  hence  emancipation  is  not  pronounced  as 
the  end  or  the  object  of  the  war,  but  as  the  means 
by  which  it  is  to  be  brought  to  a  speedy  termina 
tion.  Hence  emancipation  is  a  military  necessity, 
and  not  a  mere  public  policy. 

If  slavery  were  profitable  or  advantageous  in  any 


TO  SUPPRESS  THE  EEBELLION.        235 

way  to  slave-masters  in  time  of  peace,  slavery  is 
profitable  or  advantageous  to  the  slave-masters  in 
time  of  war.  By  emancipation,  the  war  power  of 
the  South  loses  that  profit  or  advantage,  whatever 
it  may  have  been,  and  the  capacities  of  the  rebellion 
are  to  the  same  extent  diminished. 

The  emancipation  of  the  colored  race  and  the 
enlistment  of  the  colored  men  are  measures  already 
justified  by  the  necessary  and  universal  rule  of 
war.  By  emancipation,  we  diminish  the  resources 
of  the  public  enemy ;  by  the  enlistment  and  service 
of  loyal  men, 'whether  black  or  white,  we  augment 
our  own. 

The  friends  of  the  country  must  support  the  gov 
ernment, —  not  without  criticism,  where  criticism 
is  believed  to  be  demanded ;  nor  even  without  con 
demnation,  where  condemnation  is  deserved.  But 
whoever  counsels  resistance  to  the  measures  of  the 
government,  or  foments  public  distrust,  is  an  ally 
of  the  rebels,  and  the  enemy  of  the  Union.  The 
President  is  not  above  law  nor  beyond  the  sphere 
of  accountability.  In  all  that  he  does,  he  takes  the 
responsibility  at  his  peril ;  but,  as  President,  he 
must  be  obeyed.  He  acts  constantly  in  the  pres 
ence  of  the  great  power  of  impeachment.  In  what 
he  does  and  in  what  he  neglects  to  do,  he  is  respon 
sible,  in  the  most  solemn  forms,  to  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  people  and  the  States ;  but  until 
impeached,  and  removed  from  office,  he  is  still 
President  and  must  be  obeyed,  as  well  in  reference 
to  those  acts  about  which  men  differ  as  in  regard  to 
those  concerning  which  there  is  a  substantial  agree 
ment.  As  the  President  is  the  head  of  the  govern- 


236      THE  POWER  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT 

merit,  and  the  first  officer  of  the  nation ;  as  it  is 
his  duty  to  see  that  the  laws  are  executed ;  as  he 
is,  or  should  be,  consequently  and  necessarily  in 
possession  of  all  information  concerning  the  domestic 
and  foreign  affairs  and  relations  of  the  country ; 
as  his  power  to  act  constantly  and  immediately 
never  ceases  ;  as  his  capacity  to  act  is  not  dependent 
upon  terms  or  sessions  of  tribunals  or  bodies ;  and 
as  there  is,  except  the  President,  no  assembly,  tri 
bunal,  judge,  or  magistrate  in  the  land,  that  has  at 
all  times  the  necessary  information  .under  the  Con 
stitution  concerning  the  public  welfare,  and  the 
necessary  continuing  constitutional  capacity  to  do 
what  the  public  safety  may  demand,  —  so  in  the 
President  alone  is  vested  the  great  authority,  in. 
the  name  and  for  the  protection  of  the  people,  to 
suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  whenever  the 
"  public  safety  may  require  it."  The  President, 
takes  this  responsibility  at  his  peril.  If  he  acts  for 
the  people,  and  in  defence  of  their  rights  and  insti 
tutions,  then  is  he  honored  and  vindicated ;  if  for 
party  or  personal  purposes,  then  will  he  be  con 
demned  and  disgraced.  For  the  security  of  the 
people  against  treason,  against  rebellion,  against 
invasion,  vast  powers  have  been  confided  to  the 
President:  for  the  security  of  the  people  against 
the  improper  and  tyrannical  use  of  these  powers, 
their  representatives  are  clothed  with  authority  to 
arraign  and  try  the  President,  and  condemn  and 
sentence  him  if  he  be  found  guilty. 

But  the  act  by  which  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
is  suspended  is  necessarily  binding  for  the  time 
being,  and  in  the  nature  of  the  case  it  cannot  be 


TO  SUPPRESS  THE  REBELLION.        237 

revised  or  annulled  by  any  tribunal  or  magistrate. 
If  it  can  be  so  revised,  then  a  judge  having  no 
official  knowledge  of  the  foreign  or  domestic  political 
affairs  of  the  nation  is  competent  to  annul  the  act 
of  the  President  in  a  matter  relating  to  the  public 
safety.  This  claim  is  too  absurd  to  be  refuted,  and 
too  monstrous  to  be  defended.  The  President  is 
the  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  the  navy. 
In  the  hands  of  an  unscrupulous  man,  this  power 
could  be  made  to  include  the  power  to  annul  rather 
than  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus;  and 
hence  the  denial  of  the  right  in  the  President  to 
suspend  the  writ,  is  only  calculated  to  diminish  the 
power  of  a  conscientious  and  capable  magistrate  to 
protect  the  rights  of  the  people,  while  the  power 
of  a  bad  President  to  oppress  the  country  remains 
undiminished  in  his  authority  as  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army  and  the  navy. 

The  right  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
as  a  constitutional  right  vested  in  the  President, 
gives  to  a  bad  man  no  power  to  harass  the  people, 
which,  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and 
navy,  he  could  not  at  any  moment  assume ;  while 
the  denial  of  the  right  deprives  a  patriotic  and  trust 
worthy  magistrate  of  a  chief  means  of  preserving 
the  public  liberties  in  time  of  public  peril. 

A  reasonable  apprehension  of  tyranny  is  no  doubt 
wise ;  but  there  is  no  wisdom  in  the  denial  by  a 
free  people  of  those  powers  which  are  essential  to 
the  public  welfare. 

There  should  be  faith  in  rulers  and  faith  in  the 
people.  The  nation  has  all  the  capacities  which 
come  from  six  centuries  of  progress  in  England  and 


238    THE  POWER  OP  THE  GOVERNMENT,  ETC. 

America.  If  any  thing  good  shall  be  overthrown 
in  the  present  convulsions,  it  will  re-appear  when 
peace  returns.  The  evil  that  is  crushed,  the  tyranny 
that  is  removed,  will  never  again  disturb  the  peace 
or  retard  the  progress  of  the  land.  The  people  will 
hate  tyranny  more  than  ever  before :  their  love  of 
liberty  will  be  purer  and  holier. 

Libertas  a  Deo  est  et  perire  non  potest. 


239 


CONFISCATION   OF  REBEL  PROPERTY. 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  JAN.  19, 
1864,  UPON  THE  JOINT  RESOLUTION  TO  AMEND  A  JOINT  RESO 
LUTION,  EXPLANATORY  OF  "AN  ACT  TO  SUPPRESS  INSURREC 
TION,  TO  PUNISH  TREASON  AND  REBELLION,  TO  SEIZE  AND 
CONFISCATE  THE  PROPERTY  OF  REBELS,  AND  FOR  OTHER  PUR- 
POSES,"  APPROVED  JULY  17,  1862. 

THE  subject  before  the  House,  uninteresting  as 
a  matter  of,  debate,  is  already  a  good  deal 
hackneyed.  Having  assented  in  the  committee  to 
this  report,  it  may  not  be  amiss  for  me  to  state, 
with  such  clearness  and  brevity  as  I  can  command, 
the  grounds  on  which  my  assent  was  given. 

It  was  suggested  by  the  gentleman  from  New 
York  [Mr.  Kernan],  who  spoke  early  in v  this  de 
bate,  that,  while  he  doubted  the  constitutional  au 
thority  of  Congress  to  confiscate  the  real  estate  of 
traitors  absolutely,  even  if  he  were  convinced  of  that 
authority,  he  should  doubt  the  wisdom  of  such  a 
public  policy.  I  submit  to  that  gentleman,  and  to 
those  who  sympathize  with  him  upon  this  point, 
that,  if  it  be.  clearly  shown  that  such  a  power  exists, 
then  it  was  granted  by  the  framers  of  the  Constitu 
tion  for  some  purpose,  anticipating  or  apprehending 
an  exigency  in  the  fortunes  of  the  country  when  it 
might  be  expedient  and  proper  to  put  that  power  in 
full  force. 


240      CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY. 

If  the  power  is  found  in  the  Constitution,  I  ask 
the  gentleman  from  New  York  whether  he  is  of 
opinion  that  the  men  who  framed  the  .Constitution 
could  have  anticipated  any  condition  of  public 
affairs  in  which  the  exigency  would  be  more  urgent 
than  that  which  exists  at  the  present  time  ?  It  is 
well  enough  for  nations  to  be  merciful,  but  justice 
is  a  higher  attribute  than  mercy.  If  the  power 
exists,  I  submit  that  the  exigency  for  its  extreme 
exercise  exists  also.  It  is  a  very  different  thing  to 
men  engaged  in  this  treason,  whether  they  hold 
their  lands  by  authority  of  law,  or  whether  they 
hold  them  at  the  pleasure  and  by  the  favor  of  the 
government  against  which  they  have  rebelled.  In 
this  condition  of  things,  I  maintain  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  country  and  government  to  seek  for  a 
true  interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  to  ascertain 
as  exactly  as  possible  the  limits  of  Congressional 
authority,  and  march  boldly  in  the  organization  of 
a  system  of  justice  and  penalties  to  the  very  limits 
of  that  authority,  wherever  they  may  be  found; 
and,  then,  let  the  amnesty  come,  so  that  we  can  dis 
tinguish  between  great  offenders,  who,  of  their  own 
motion  in  violation  of  the  Constitution, — in  violation 
of  the  rights,  not  only  of  their  country,  but  of  all 
mankind,  not  only  of  this  age,  but  of  all  coming 
ages,  —  rebelled  against  the  government,  and  those 
who  have  been  duped,  misled,  seduced  from  their 
public  duty.  On  these  we  will  have  compassion ; 
and  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  will  come  to  under 
stand,  that  the  majority  here  and  in  the  country  will 
execute  justice,  and  remember  mercy  also. 

I  am  not  sure,  sir,  that  there  is  any  material  dif- 


CONFISCATION   OF   REBEL   PROPERTY.  241 

ference  between  the  report  of  the  committee,  and 
the  amendment  proposed  by  the  chairman  of  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  in  the  effect  to  be 
produced  on  such  rebels  as  may  be  made  amenable' 
to  the  statute  of  July  17,  1862.  I  understand  the 
joint  resolution  now  before  the  House  to  be  of  such 
a  character,  that,  if  adopted,  it  will  be  the  duty  of 
the  courts  of  the  country  to  administer  the  penal 
ties  prescribed  in  the  law,  to  the  full  limits  of  con 
stitutional  authority.  If  by  repealing  the  joint 
resolution  of  July  17,  1862,  and  putting  into  opera 
tion  the  law  unrestricted,  or  if  by  enacting  another 
and  more  stringent  statute,  we  transcend  the  Con 
stitution,  it  will  be  the  duty  of  the  courts  to 
limit  the  statute  within  constitutional  authority. 
Therefore,  practically,  I  do  not  see  that  there  is  a 
difference  between  the  joint  resolution,  and  the 
amendment  proposed  by  the  gentleman  from  Penn 
sylvania  [Mr.  Stevens]. 

Mr.  STEVENS.  —  The  resolution  of  the  committee 
restricts  all  the  forfeitures  under  the  Confiscation 
Act  to  what  they  are  already  in  the  case  of  attainder 
for  treason  in  the  Constitution.  Now,  the  act  itself 
has  no  reference  to  the  section  of  the  Constitution 
referred  to ;  but  there  are  confiscations  outside  of 
that  entirely,  not  for  treason,  but  as  the  property 
of  alien  enemies.  Therefore  the  resolution  of  the 
committee  confines  the  operation  of  the  act  of  1862 
much  more  than  the  original  resolution  did.  If 
the  gentleman  will  modify  the  resolution  so  as  to 
make  it  read  that  the  act  of  1862  shall  produce  no 
forfeiture  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Constitution,  I 
am  content. 

16 


242      CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  understand  that  to  be  the 
object  of  the  joint  resolution.  But  I  will  say,  by 
way  of  answer  to  the  first  suggestion  of  the  gentle 
man  from  Pennsylvania,  that  when  we  find  in  the 
Constitution,  as  in  that  part  relating  to  treason, 
distinct  and  definite  authority  given  to  the  govern 
ment  in  the  way  of  punishment,  we  cannot  look  to 
any  other  provision  of  the  Constitution,  or  to  any 
general  principle,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  author 
ity  to  inflict  other  and  different  penalties.  The 
authority  is  to  be  found  in  that  provision  of  the 
Constitution,  or  it  is  not  to  be  found  anywhere. 

Something  has  been  said  in  the  course  of  this 
debate  in  regard  to  the  act  of  July,  1862,  and  some 
thing  is  found  in  the  President's  message  touching 
the  authority  of  the  government  to  proceed  in  rem, 
as  it  is  called,  under  the  fifth  section  of  this  act,  — 
the  allegation  being  that  such  proceedings  are  not 
by  due  process  of  law,  as  required  by  the  Con 
stitution.  An  analogy  has  been  drawn  in  some 
quarters  from  the  authority  of  the  Government  in 
prize  courts.  It  does  not  follow,  necessarily,  that, 
because  the  Government  may  proceed  in  rem  against 
enemies'  property  found  on  the  ocean,  it  may  there 
fore  proceed  against  other  property  found  in  other 
and  different  positions.  The  principle,  as  I  under 
stand,  of  the  law  on  which  proceedings  in  rem  are 
justified  in  prize  cases  is  this :  enemies'  property 
being  found  in  transitu  on  the  ocean,  a  presumption 
at  once  arises,  that  either  that  property  or  the 
proceeds  of  it,  in  one  way  or  another,  are  to  inure 
to  the  benefit  of  the  public  enemy,  and  no  inquiry 
can  be  instituted  in  court  as  to  whether  the  individ- 


CONFISCATION   OF   REBEL   PROPERTY.  243 

ual  owner  is  an  enemy  or  a  friend.  It  is  sufficient 
that  he  is  de  facto  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  belli 
gerent, —  that  he  is  an  inhabitant  of  the  territory 
against  the  people  of  which  we  are  waging  war. 

Property  on  land  is  not  subject  to  seizure  or  con 
fiscation,  because  there  is  no  presumption  existing 
generally  that  it  is  to  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  the 
enemy.  It  may  be  taken  for  the  necessities  of 
the  army;  but  it  cannot  be  proceeded  against  in  rem, 
as  property  taken  upon  the  sea  may  be. 

It  is  necessary,  when  we  propose  a  new  measure, 
to  find  authority  in  one  of  two  conditions  of  things, 
—  either  in  a  principle  not  heretofore  established,  or 
else  in  a  principle  heretofore  recognized,  but  not 
extended  in  its  application  so  as  to  sustain  the  pro 
posed  measure. 

I  submit  to  the  House,  as  justifying  the  seizures 
provided  for  in  the  fifth  section  of  the  act  of  July 
17,  1862,  that  while  the  condition  of  property  be 
longing  to  rebels  does  not  create  the  presumption, 
in  and  of  itself,  that  it  is  to  be  used  in  support  of 
the  rebellion,  still  the  law  itself  requires  proof, 
equivalent  to  the  evidence  on  which  presumption  is 
to  be  based  in  the  case  of  enemies'  property  taken 
on  the  ocean.  By  the  fifth  and  sixth  sections  of 
the  act,  the  government  is  to  show  that  the  owner 
of  this  rebel  property  is  an  officer  of  the  army  or 
navy,  or  in  the  civil  service  of  rebels  in  arms  against 
the  Government  of  the  United  States. 

And,  when  we  have  established  that  fact,  is  it  not 
equal  to  the  presumption  that  arises  when  enemies' 
property  is  taken  in  transitu  on  the  water  ?  Upon 
such  proof,  it  is  a  fair  presumption  that  the  property 


244  CONFISCATION   OF   REBEL   PROPERTY. 

belonging  to  a  rebel  officer,  in  arms  against  the 
United  States }  is  either  designed  of  itself  to  be  for 
the  benefit  of  the  rebels,  or  else  that  it  is  to  be  con 
verted  into  other  property  which  is  to  inure  to  the 
benefit  of  the  rebellion.  Therefore  it  follows,  that 
the  same  principles  which  justify  proceedings  in  rem 
in  prize  cases  justify  similar  proceedings  against  the 
property  of  the  various  persons  specified  in  the  fifth 
section  of  the  act  of  July  17, 1862.  And  therefore 
I  feel  satisfied,  for  one,  that  upon  this  view  of  the 
subject  the  difficulty  is  substantially  removed. 

I  come  next  —  for  I  do  not  mean  to  occupy  the 
attention  of  the  House  a  great  while  —  to  the  par 
ticular  authority  granted  by  the  Constitution  for 
doing  what  we  propose  shall  be  done ;  and  I  com 
mend  to  the  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the 
House  a  reflection  which  must  be  common  to  us  all 
who  have  had  some  experience  in  public  or  in  pro 
fessional  life.  The  authority  of  a  statute,  or  the 
scope  of  a  constitutional  provision,  can  never  be 
fairly  considered  or  discussed  as  a  measure,  until 
there  is  an  actual  case  arising ;  and  nothing  is  more 
common  than  for  the  courts  of  the  various  States, 
whenever  a  call  is  made  on  them  for  an  opinion  on 
a  matter  in  reference  to  which  no  case  has  actually 
arisen,  —  and  such  calls  are  occasionally  made  by 
the  executive  or  legislative  branches  of  State  gov 
ernments,  —  either  to  decline  to  give  an  opinion,  or, 
if  an  opinion  is  given,  to  submit  it  with  the  distinct 
understanding  that  the  court  is  not  bound  by  it. 
It  is  only  when  a  case  is  before  a  court,  and  argu 
ments  are  submitted,  that  a  true  construction  can 
be  attained. 


CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY.     245 

I  do  not  agree  at  all  with  the  gentleman  who  last 
addressed  the  House  [Mr.  Bliss],  as  to  the  effect  of 
Mr.  Madison's  commentary  upon  this  provision  of 
the  Constitution.  That,  however,  I  shall  have  occa 
sion  to  consider  hereafter. 

A  word  in  passing  in  regard  to  Judge  Story's  au 
thority.  I  dare  say,  from  the  nature  of  the  language 
used  by  him  in  his  Commentaries,  that  he  understood 
this  provision  of  the  Constitution  as  it  is  interpreted 
by  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House. 

I  would  not  disparage  Judge  Story  as  a  lawyer ; 
but  as  a  great  man,  as  a  man  of  capacious  and 
grasping  intellect,  he  must  be  placed  in  the  second 
class  of  the  great  men  which  this  country  has  pro 
duced.  When  he  wrote  he  had  no  case  before  him. 
He  has  merely  followed  English  law.  What  he  has 
written  in  his  Commentaries  is  a  reproduction  of 
what  he  had  read  in  the  English  books. 

I  will  refer  also  to  the  language  of  Mr.  Madison. 
Our  fathers,  when  they  framed  the  Constitution, 
intended  manifestly  to  guard  against  two  things: 
first,  the  forfeiture  of  estates  by  proceedings  insti 
tuted  subsequently  to  the  death  of  the  offender; 
arid,  secondly,  the  attainting  or  corruption  of  blood 
by  which  the  heirs  of  the  offender  should  become 
incapable,  either  to  enjoy  the  estates  which  had  not 
been  forfeited,  or  which  might  descend  to  them  from 
the  progenitors  of  the  offender,  and  subsequently  to 
his  death.  The  Constitution  has  sufficiently  guarded 
Congress  upon  these  points,  and  the  language  of 
Mr.  Madison  relates  to  the  limitations  upon  the 
powers  of  Congress. 

I  call  attention  to  a  very  singular  circumstance, 


246  CONFISCATION   OF   REBEL   PROPERTY. 

in  connection  with  this  provision  of  the  Constitu 
tion.  I  find,  in  examining  it  as  printed  in  the 
Manual,  that  it  is  without  punctuation  after  " blood" 
and  after  "  forfeiture."  In  the  copy  of  the  Consti 
tution  prefixed  to  the  statutes,  as  printed  by  Little 
&  Brown,  there  is  a  comma  after  "  blood "  and 
another  after  "  forfeiture."  These  circumstances 
led  me  to  look  at  the  original  instrument  in  the 
office  of  the  Secretary  of  State ;  and  I  find  that 
there  is  a  comma  after  "  blood,"  but  none  after  "  for 
feiture."  The  Secretary  of  State  was  so  thoroughly 
convinced  that  such  was  the  reading  of  the  Consti 
tution,  that  I  have  an  official  certificate  from  him  to 
that  effect.  It  will  be  said  very  likely,  that  punctua 
tion  is  never  regarded  in  the  construction  of  stat 
utes.  That  is  the  legal  declaration ;  but  I  never 
knew  a  person  so  entirely  insensible  to  the  influence 
of  facts,  that  he  could  discuss  and  consider  and 
decide  upon  a  statute  regardless  of  punctuation. 
In  such  an  instrument  as  the  Constitution,  framed 
with  care,  and  signed  by  men  who  were  responsible 
for  it  to  the  country  and  to  future  ages,  it  is  to  be 
presumed  that  every  thing,  even  to  the  punctuation, 
was  deemed  a  matter  ^of  importance.  Punctuation, 
even  in  a  statute  hastily  and  loosely  drawn,  decides 
its  interpretation  whenever  the  language  is  equiv 
ocal  or  ambiguous.1 

1  In  the  original  report  of  the  Constitution  by  the  Committee  of 
Detail,  the  clause  reads  thus  :  "  No  attainder  of  treason  shall  work 
corruption  of  blood,  nor  forfeiture,  except  during  the  life  of  the 
person  attainted."  (Elliot's  Debates,  vol.  5,  p.  379.)  The  change 
of  nor  to  or,  and  the  omission  of  the  comma  after  forfeiture,  seem 
to  conclude  the  question  as  to  the  intention  of  the  framers  of  the 
Constitution. 


CONFISCATION   OF   REBEL   PROPERTY.  247 

It  is  worthy  of  observation,  that  that  portion  of  the 
Constitution  which  sets  forth  the  evidence  necessary 
to  a  conviction  for  the  crime  of  treason  is  drawn  sub 
stantially  from  an  English  statute  passed  in  the  7th 
and  8th  of  William  III.,  showing  that  our  ancestors 
were  familiar  with  the  English  law  bearing  upon  the 
subject.1  But  we  need  not  even  a  single  piece  of  testi 
mony  on  this  point ;  for  we  know  very  well,  that  they 
were  versed  in  the  English  law,  and  in  every  thing 
relating  to  the  feudal  system,  as  no  other  body  of 
men  ever  were  in  Great  Britain  or  in  this  country. 

I  think  it  not  out  of  place  to  refer  to  a  work  not 
much  known,  and  hardly  ever  read.  I  speak  of  the 
correspondence  between  the  provincial  House  of 
Representatives  of  Massachusetts  and  the  provin 
cial  Governors  of  Massachusetts  from  1765  to  1774 ; 
and  in  which  the  whole  feudal  system  is  discussed 
with  clearness,  power,  and  precision,  such  as  are 
exhibited  in  no  other  work  I  have  ever  seen.  .  It 
relieves  our  revolutionary  contest  from  that  historic 
fable,  that  we  instituted  a  war  for  independence 
upon  the  subordinate  issue  of  a  tax  of  threepence 
a  pound  upon  tea.  Our  ancestors,  in  their  legal 

1  By  the  statute  of  7th  and  8th  William  III.,  it  was  provided  as 
follows :  "  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  from  and  after  the  said 
five  and  twentieth  day  of  March,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1696,  no 
person  or  persons  whatsoever  shall  be  indicted,  tried,  or  attainted 
of  high  treason,  whereby  any  corruption  of  blood  may  or  shall  be 
made  to  any  such  offender  or  offenders,  or  to  any  heir  or  heirs  of 
any  such  offender  or  offenders,  or  of  misprision  of  such  treason, 
bat  by  and  upon  the  oaths  and  testimony  of  two  lawful  witnesses,  either 
both  of  them  to  the  same  overt  act,  or  one  of  them  to  one,  and  the 
other  of  them  to  another  overt  act  of  the  same  treason ;  unless 
the  party  indicted,  and  arraigned,  or  tried,  shall  willingly,  without 
violence,  in  open  court  confess  the  same,"  &c. 


248     CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY. 

and  solid  and  responsible  arguments,  never  put  the 
contest  upon  that  basis.  It  might  have  been  a 
ground  of  appeal  to  the  people :  but,  through  the 
feudal  system,  they  traced  our  rights  to  the  king ; 
and  maintained  with  great  clearness,  that  they  were 
no  more  amenable  to  the  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain  than  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  was 
to  the  legislatures  of  the  several  colonies  in  this 
country.  They  maintained  that  the  people  of  the 
colonies  and  the  people  of  Great  Britain  were  inde 
pendent  of  each  other.  The  argument  of  this 
correspondence  throws  light  upon  one  of  the  allega 
tions  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  colonists  rebelled  against  George  III.,  not 
because  he  was  not  the  legitimate  king,  but  because 
he  combined  with  the  Parliament  to  deprive  the 
people  of  this  country  of  their  liberties.  Our 
ancestors  well  knew  the  legal  history  of  Great 
Britain  in  reference  to  treason  and  forfeiture. 
Blackstone  refers  us  to  a  provision  of  the  statutes 
against  treason,  passed  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth ; 
and  he  uses  this  phrase  in  regard  to  the  forfeiture 
as  limiting  the  power  of  the  courts,  "  save  only 
for  the  life  of  the  offender."  If  our  ancestors 
intended  that  forfeiture  should  be  only  for  the  life 
of  the  offender  in  all  cases,  how  has  it  happened, 
that,  when  they  went  to  the  statute  of  William  III. 
for  the  language  used  in  stating  the  evidence  neces 
sary  to  a  conviction  for  treason,  they  should  have 
used  language  in  reference  to  the  penalty  which 
rendered  their  meaning  uncertain  ?  During  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  it  was  provided  by  statute, 
that  persons  convicted  of  treason  should  forfeit 


CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY.  249 

all  their  goods  and  chattels,  and  the  use  of  their 
lands,  tenements,  and  hereditaments,  during  their 
natural  lives  only.  This  statute  remained  in  force 
until  about  the  time  of  the  union  of  Scotland  and 
England.1 

When  we  consider  that  the  men  who  framed  the 
Constitution  had  this  language  before  them,  that 
they  extracted  a  certain  portion  of  the  Constitution 
from  the  statute  of  William  III.,  is  it  to  be  presumed 
that  they  should  have  neglected  to  make  this  point 
clear  by  using  the  words  of  the  statute  of  William,  if 
they  had  such  a  purpose  as  is  contended  for  by  the 
gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House  ?  So  far 
from  their  having  had  any  such  purpose,  I  think  it 
the  plainer,  more  natural,  as  well  as  necessary  con 
struction  of  the  Constitution,  that  the  contrary  is  the 
case.  I  believe  that  gentlemen  will  see  as  they  go 
on  in  this  debate,  or  in  their  practical  experience  of 
the  operation  of  the  law,  that  it  is  a  reflection  upon 
the  judgment  of  our  ancestors  to  maintain  that  they 
intended  to  do  that  which  gentlemen  on  the  other 
side  of  the  House  say  they  have  done. 

We  are  to  look  upon  this  question  as  a  question 
of  public  policy  also,  to  a  certain  extent.  Suppose 
a  man  is  convicted  of  treason,  and  is  proceeded 

1  By  the  statute  of  5th  Elizabeth,  c.  11,  the  crime  of  clipping 
and  washing  coins  was  declared  treason ;  and  it  was  provided  that 
the  offender  should  suffer  the  pains  of  death,  and  lose  and  forfeit 
ah1  his  goods  and  chattels,  and  also  lose  and  forfeit  all  his  lands, 
tenements,  and  hereditaments,  during  his  natural  life  only.  By 
the  statute  1st  Elizabeth,  c.  5,  certain  offences  were  made  high 
treason,  being,  as  enumerated,  the  highest  crimes  known  to  the 
law ;  and  it  was  provided  that  the  offender  should  forfeit  to  the 
Queen  all  his  goods  and  chattels  and  the  profits  of  his  lands,  dur 
ing  his  life. 


250      CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY. 

against,  and  the  law  is  held  as  gentlemen  on  the 
other  side  of  the  House  allege  that  it  should  be 
held.  The  offender  is  to  be  executed  in  forty  days. 
You  forfeit  his  life-estate  in  his  land.  He  has  a 
remainder,  which  he  can  sell  to  a  brother  traitor  not 
yet  convicted,  and  perhaps  not  yet  suspected ;  and 
his  property,  thus  converted  into  money,  is  made 
serviceable  to  the  rebellion.  Was  it  not  the  inten 
tion  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution,  that  forfeit 
ure  of  estate  should  not  only  deprive  the  offender  of 
its  use,  and  thereby  be  a  penalty  upon  him  ;  but  that 
the  cause  with  which  he  was  identified  should  be  de 
prived  to  that  extent  of  the  means  of  support? 
Gentlemen  construe  the  Constitution  in  such  a 
manner,  that,  when  we  have  forfeited  the  estate 
during  life,  the  offender  may  then  put  the  remainder 
into  money,  —  which,  in  such  a  case,  would  be  the 
chief  value  of  the  estate, — and  turn  it  into  the  treas 
ury  of  the  rebels. 

I  have  said,  that  by  the  Constitution  our  fathers 
intended  to  do  two  things ;  and  a  true  interpreta 
tion  of  this  clause,  according  to  the  punctuation, 
shows  that  their  ends  were  accomplished.  Con 
gress  has  power  to  declare  the  punishment  of 
treason, — but  no  attainder  of  treason  can  work  cor 
ruption  of  blood.  Here  are  two  propositions. 
Congress  has  power  to  declare  the  punishment  of 
treason  ;  that  is,  the  full,  supreme,  unlimited  power, 
except  as  it  may  be  controlled  by  the  two  clauses 
following :  "  But  no  attainder  of  treason  shall  work 
corruption  of  blood."  That  is  an  absolute  prohibi 
tion  upon  the  power  exercised  by  the  British  Parlia 
ment  to  work  corruption  of  blood  through  attainder 


CONFISCATION   OF   REBEL   PROPERTY.  251 

of  treason.  If  the  construction  contended  for  by 
the  gentlemen  upon  the  other  side  of  the  House 
prevails,  I  do  not  see  why  the  Constitution  must 
not  be  read  to  this  effect :  "  that  no  attainder  of 
treason  shall  work  corruption  of  blood,  except  dur 
ing  the  life  of  the  person  attainted." 

But  who  does  not  see  the  absurdity  of  thus  work 
ing  corruption  of  blood  during  the  life  of  the  person 
attainted  ?  Under  the  Constitution,  we  can  do  to 
the  person  convicted  all  those  things,  which  by  the 
corruption  of  blood  could  have  been  worked  by 
the  common  law  of  England  upon  him.  We  can 
make  him  an  outlaw ;  and,  therefore,  to  say  that  we 
have  authority,  under  the  Constitution,  to  work  cor 
ruption  of  blood  during  the  lifetime  of  the  offender 
is  simply  an  absurdity.  It  does  not  give  us  any 
power  which  we  could  not  exercise  without  that 
provision.  "  But  no  attainder  of  treason  shall  work 
corruption  of  blood,"  —  thus  securing  one  object 
they  had  in  view,  — "  or  forfeiture  except  during 
the  life  of  the  person  attainted." 

I  do  not  feel  any  apprehension  as  to  what  the 
judgment  of  the  House  may  be  upon  the  meaning 
of  the  word  "  except,"  whether  it  is  regarded  as  the 
equivalent  of  "  unless "  or  not.  But  I  think  it 
clear,  from  a  reference  already  made,  that  two  cen 
turies  ago  "  except "  had  for  a  synonyme  "  unless." 
The  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Cox]  remarked,  that 
the  judge  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Virginia  had 
said  that  "  except "  did  not  mean  "  except,"  but 
meant  something  else.  The  judge,  I  apprehend, 
said  no  such  thing.  He  said  that  "  unless  "  was 
the  synonyme  of  "  except ; "  and  that  our  fathers 


252      CONFISCATION  OF  REBEL  PROPERTY. 

often  used  the  word  "  except,"  where  "  unless " 
might  be  used  by  us.  One  quotation  has  been  made 
which  I  commend  to  gentlemen  on  the  other  side, 
in  connection  with  this  bill,  and  also  with  the  pecu 
liar  sympathy  which  they  seem  to  show  to  their 
deluded  brethren  of  the  South,  —  I  do  not  know  as 
they  regard  it  as  authority,  — "  Except  ye  repent, 
ye  shall  all  likewise  perish."  But  I  accept  "  ex 
cept,"  exactly  as  they  desire  to  have  it  understood 
in  the  Constitution.  Gentlemen  in  this  House  and 
elsewhere  have  made  a  distinction  which  nowhere 
exists  in  the  Constitution. 

The  word  "  forfeiture  "  has  not  a  particular  refer 
ence  to  real  estate  more  than  to  goods  and  chattels. 
"  Forfeiture  !  "  Forfeiture  of  what  ?  Of  that  which 
the  offender  possesses.  Gentlemen  s^ay,  "  Life  estate 
is  the  estate  intended."  And  here  again  we  see  how 
we  have  been  misled  by  British  institutions.  Before 
the  Constitution  was  framed,  entail  and  primogeni 
ture  were  comparatively  unknown  in  this  country. 
It  is  possible  there  were  a  few  entailed  estates  in 
some  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  or  estates  entailed 
for  a  limited  period  of  time.  Now,  knowing  as  we 
do  that  our  fathers  were  opposed  to  the  whole  sys 
tem  of  entail  and  primogeniture,  is  it  to  be  sup 
posed  they  intended,  when  they  were  decreeing  pains 
and  penalties  for  the  crime  of  treason,  to  introduce 
the  doctrine  of  entail,  and  separate  estates  of  fee- 
tail  and  remainder  ? 

They  intended,  when  they  used  the  word  "  forfeit 
ure,"  that  the  party  convicted  should  be  deprived 
of  that  which  he  possessed,  neither  more  nor  less. 
Where  the  estate  is  a  life-estate,  the  Constitution 


CONFISCATION   OF   REBEL   PROPERTY.  253 

forfeits  the  life-estate ;  and  where  the  estate  is  in  fee, 
the  forfeiture  must  apply  to  the  whole  estate. 

The  laws  of  the  States  generally  do  not  recognize 
any  such  estate  as  a  life-estate,  except  in  particular 
cases. 

Here  is  a  grave  question,  —  one  which  possibly 
may  be  satisfactorily  answered,  but  how  I  do  not 
see.  All  the  laws  relating  to  the  tenure  of  estates 
are  framed  by  the  several  States,  and  in  most  of 
them  there  is  no  separate  estate  known  as  a  life- 
estate.  Whoever  owns  the  fee  has  the  whole  estate. 
What,  I  ask,  upon  the  construction  claimed  by 
gentlemen  upon  the  other  side,  is  to  be  the  effect 
of  the  interpretation  of  the  constitution  for  which 
they  contend  ? 

I  hold,  as  a  matter  of  constitutional  law,  that 
Congress  has  no  power  to  create  a  life-estate  in 
Massachusetts,  even  for  the  purpose  of  wresting  it 
from  a  traitor,  if  there  be  one  there.  The  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States,  and  the  laws  of  the 
United  States,  in  reference  to  the  forfeiture  of 
the  property  of  traitors,  must  take  that  property 
exactly  as  it  is  declared  and  defined  by  the  law  of 
the  State  in  which  the  property  of  the  criminal  is 
found.  Mr.  Clay  said  in  1839,  upon  another  and  a 
very  different  subject,  that  "  that  is  property  which 
the  law  recognizes  as  property."  We  have  no  such 
division  of  property  recognized  by  the  laws  of  the 
States,  except  in  particular  cases,  as  a  life-estate. 
If,  then,  you  find  a  traitor  in  Massachusetts,  if  you 
arraign  and  convict  him,  and  inflict  a  penalty  upon 
him,  you  must  forfeit  his  property,  whether  lands 
or  chattels,  exactly  as  it  exists  under  the  laws  of 


254  CONFISCATION   OP   REBEL   PROPERTY. 

the  State.     You  cannot  create  a  life-estate,  and  for 
feit  it,  and  give  the  remainder  to  somebody  else. 

Upon  all  these  facts,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  can  come 
but  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  framers  of  the  Con 
stitution  intended  to  guard  against  two  evils  in  the 
British  system :  first,  the  forfeiture  of  the  estate  by 
proceedings  instituted  after  the  death  of  the  offend 
er  ;  and,  secondly,  the  corruption  of  blood  so  as  to 
disable  the  heirs  of  an  offender  from  inheriting 
through  him.  The  construction  I  have  given  to  the 
Constitution  secures  these  two  objects,  and  it  must 
be  observed  that  it  gives  full  force  and  effect  to 
every  word  in  the  instrument  relating  to  treason ; 
and,  when  we  have  found  a  satisfactory  use  for  every 
word,  it  is  unnecessary  to  look  further,  and  espe 
cially  when  the  interpretation  given  is  consistent 
with  the  general  policy  and  ideas  of  the  coun 
try.  I  have,  then,  no  hesitation,  for  one,  in  sus 
taining  a  measure,  be  it  this  joint  resolution  or 
any  other,  which  shall  provide  for  the  forfeiture 
of  the  estates  of  persons  convicted  of  treason, 
whether  those  estates  be  in  goods  and  chattels,  or 
lands  held  by  fee-simple  titles,  or  in  land  in  which 
the  offender  has  a  life-estate.  If  he  has  a  life- 
estate  merely,  he  forfeits  that ;  if  he  owns  the  fee, 
he  forfeits  the  fee  ;  if  he  owns  goods  and  chattels, 
he  forfeits  his  goods  and  chattels.  We  thus  inflict 
a  necessary  and  just  punishment  upon  the  offender, 
and  take  security  that  his  property  will  not  by  some 
indirection  be  used  in  behalf  of  the  rebellion. 


255 


THE   CONDUCT   OF  THE   WAR. 

[FROM  THE  "NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN,"   FEB.  5,   1864.] 

\\7~E  have  heretofore  expressed  the  opinion, 
that  the  energies  of  the  government  should 
be  directed  to  the  work  of  strengthening  ourselves 
on  the  Mississippi,  and  crippling  the  rebellion  at  its 
extremities  in  Tennessee  and  Louisiana ;  and  that, 
in  the  mean  while,  no  serious  effort  should  be  made 
against  Richmond.  Our  south-western  lines  may 
now  be  considered  secure,  although  it  is  in  the 
highest  degree  probable  that  a  vigorous  effort  will 
be  made  to  drive  our  forces  from  Knoxville  and 
Chattanooga,  by  a  formidable  movement  across  the 
Tennessee  River  between  those  points,  or  at  a  point 
west  of  the  latter  town. 

The  attempt  will  be  a  desperate  one ;  and  the 
preparation  on  our  pfert  should  correspond  to  the 
exigency  in  which  the  rebel  leaders  are  placed. 
While  a  success  by  the  rebels  would  be  temporary 
in  its  results,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  any  thing 
less  than  the  complete  overthrow  of  the  plan  would 
be  a  disgrace  to  our  arms.  We  are  greatly  superior 
in  numbers  ;  our  soldiers  are  animated  by  the  recol 
lection  of  recent  victories,  and  inspired  with  confi 
dence  in  the  speedy  and  successful  termination  of 
the  war.  The  veterans  have  re-enlisted  generally ; 


256  THE   CONDUCT   OF   THE   WAR. 

and  the  numbers  of  the  army  are  augmented  weekly 
by  the  addition  of  several  thousand  recruits,  many 
of  whom  have  seen  service  heretofore. 

There  ought  to  be  no  cause  for  apprehension, 
although  we  cannot  overlook  the  fact  that  it  is 
possible  for  the  rebels  to  combine  the  greater  part 
of  their  available  force  upon  a  single  position.  As 
the  rebel  lines  are  contracted  by  our  successes, 
their  ability  to  concentrate  their  army  at  a  given 
point  is  increased.  Hence  our  necessity  for  large 
armies  was  never  greater  than  at  the  present  time ; 
and  there  is  no  doubt  that  our  available  force  on  the 
first  of  March  next  will  equal,  if  it  do  not  exceed, 
that  of  any  previous  period  of  the  war. 

Richmond  is  again  the  point  of  chief  interest. 
It  is  the  only  base  for  rebel  movements  upon 
Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  and  West  Virginia.  Once 
in  our  possession,  and  these  States  are  secure, 
while  the  rebel  forces  would  soon  be  compelled  to 
abandon  North  Carolina.  Following  this,  and  with 
out  delay,  they  would  retire  from  East  Tennessee, 
and  concentrate  their  forces  in  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  and  Alabama.  These  States  are  quite 
unable  to  sustain  an  army  of  one  hundred  thousand 
to  two  hundred  thousand  men,  for  even  sixty  days, 
in  addition  to  the  present  population,  swollen  beyond 
that  of  any  former  time  by  the  influx  of  whites  and 
blacks  from  the  northern  rebel  States.  Hence,  if 
we  can  maintain  our  positions  at  Knoxville  and 
Chattanooga,  the  capture  of  Richmond  is,  in  effect 
and  in  fact,  the  end  of  the  war. 

It  is  therefore  quite  unnecessary,  if  not  gravely 
impolitic,  for  us  to  assume  the  offensive  in  the 


THE    CONDUCT   OF   THE    WAR.  257 

West.  The  army  in  that  quarter  should  be  treated 
as  an  army  of  observation,  occupying  such  positions 
as  will  best  guard  the  approaches  to  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky,  while  it  is  prepared  to  take  advantage  of 
any  weakness  of  position  or  force  on  the  part  of  our 
opponents.  We  ought,  then,  to  struggle  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  rebel  army  in  Virginia. 

How  is  this  to  be  done  ?  or,  rather,  how  is  it  to  be 
attempted  with  a  reasonable  hope  of  success  ?  The 
campaigns  of  1861  and  1862  were  failures.  Yet  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  is  composed  of  good  mate 
rials, —  not  inferior  to  any  other  army  of  the 
republic.  The  Eleventh  Army  Corps,  when  trans 
ferred  to  the  West,  at  once  achieved  a  position  not 
less  honorable  than  that  accorded  to  the  veteran 
heroes  of  Shiloh  and  Vicksburg.  There  is  no  rea 
son  to  suppose  that  the  other  corps  of  the  Potomac 
Army  are  in  any  degree  inferior. 

It  has  been  led  by  able  and  brave  men.  Of  the 
six  Generals  who  have  successively  had  command, 
one  or  more  at  least  would  be  approved  as  a  good 
officer  by  every  citizen  and  military  critic  in  the 
country.  Why,  then,  have  we  failed  to  capture 
Richmond?  Some  may  say  that  our  misfortunes 
are  due  to  the  interference  of  the  government  at 
Washington ;  but  there  are  those  who  know  that 
this  suggestion  has  no  foundation  in  fact.  In  the 
nature  of  things,  the  government  must  be  responsi 
ble  for  the  general  plan  of  a  campaign;  but  the 
details  of  its  execution  are  necessarily  left  to  the 
judgment  of  the  commander  in  the  field. 

It  is  probably  true,  that  neither  suggestions,  nor 
the  absence  of  suggestions,  on  the  part  of  officials 

17 


258  THE   CONDUCT   OF   THE   WAR. 

in  Washington,  could  have  changed  materially  the 
result  of  the  several  campaigns  in  Northern  and 
Eastern  Virginia.  We  have  there  encountered  the 
best  army  of  the  rebels,  led  by  their  ablest  officers, 
while  acting  under  the  advice  of  Davis  and  others 
at  Richmond,  and  inspired  by  the  belief  that  the 
existence  of  the  Confederacy  was  indissolubly 
connected  with  the  fate  of  that  city.  These  were 
facts  amounting  to  serious  difficulties,  if  not  obsta 
cles  in  our  way ;  to  which  were  superadded  the 
physical  features  of  the  country  in  which  military 
operations  have  been  conducted. 

The  region  between  the  Potomac  and  the  James 
Rivers  is  traversed  by  numerous  and  nearly  parallel 
streams  and  rivers,  and  ranges  of  hills  and  high 
lands.  These,  considered  singly,  are  barriers  to  the 
movements  of  an  army ;  and,  collectively,  they 
become  an  insuperable  obstacle  when  viewed  in 
connection  with  the  fact,  that  an  advance  to  Rich 
mond  does  not  relieve  us  from  our  dependence  upon 
the  Potomac  as  a  base  of  supplies,  unless  we  seek 
our  way  through  the  swamps  of  the  Chickahominy. 
These  are  the  natural  and  unavoidable  obstacles 
which  have  impeded  our  progress.  It  may  be  true 
that  it  was  well  during  these  three  years  to  contest 
for  supremacy  with  the  rebels  between  the  Potomac 
and  the  Rappahannock.  The  rebellion  could  not 
have  been  overthrown  by  strategy,  by  bloodless 
victories,  by  advantages  of  position  merely. 

It  was  necessary  that  battles  should  be  fought, 
that  sacrifices  should  be  made,  that  thousands 
should  be  slain,  that  the  capacity  of  each  side 
should  be  fully  tested.  This  has  been  done ;  and  no 


THE   CONDUCT   OF   THE   WAR.  259 

one  can  say  that  it  was  not  as  well  for  the  cause  of 
the  republic  that  these  sacrifices  should  have  been 
made  within  sight  of  the  capital  as  elsewhere. 
However  this  may  be,  there  was  always  a  control 
ling  consideration  which  does,  and  will,  fully  justify 
the  administration  in  the  policy  it  has  pursued, 
since  the  memorable  disaster  of  the  Peninsular 
campaign  of  1862,  under  the  lead  of  McClellan, 
and  in  deference  to  his  views.  We  have  combated 
the  enemy  in  front  of  Washington,  where  he  has 
been  crippled  and  the  capital  of  the  country  at 
the  same  time  defended. 

There  has  never  been  a  moment  until  the  present 
when  it  was  safe  to  trust  Washington  to  its  fortifica 
tions  and  the  men  within  them ;  but  we  believe  that 
our  strength  is  so  great,  and  the  capacity  of  the 
enemy  for  offensive  movements  so  much  weakened, 
that  the  safety  of  the  capital  should  not  be  the 
occasion  of  distrust  with  reference  to  future  opera 
tions.  Moreover,  the  plan  we  suggest  does  not  so 
remove  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  as  to  deprive  the 
city  of  succor  in  case  of  danger. 

Our  successes  in  the  West  are  due,  in  a  good 
degree,  to  the  existence  of  navigable  rivers,  and 
the  use  we  have  made  of  them.  The  ascent  of  the 
Cumberland  and  Tennessee  Rivers  was  followed 
by  the  victories  of  Fort  Henry  and  Fort  Donelson. 
Columbus,  Ky.,  being  thus  flanked,  and  assailable 
from  the  land  side,  was  abandoned.  Memphis 
followed.  Nashville  fell  into  our  hands.  The  pos 
session  of  the  river,  and  the  presence  of  a  small 
naval  force,  saved  the  honor  of  our  arms  at  Shiloh. 

Our  operations  on  the  Mississippi  are  well  known. 


260  THE   CONDUCT   OF   THE   WAR. 

The  navigation  of  the  Tennessee  is  the  security 
for  Chattanooga,  as  it  was  the  means  of  our  success 
in  its  capture. 

The  rebels  are  without  a  navy  and  without  ca 
pacity  to  man  and  use  ships  if  they  possessed  them. 
Our  advantage  on  the  rivers  is  undisputed.  Com 
munication  upon  water  is  safer  than  upon  railways 
even,  always  more  economical,  and  for  transporting 
sustenance  for  a  large  army  it  is  more  effective. 
Hence  a  river  is  the  most  advantageous  base  of 
supplies ;  and  our  experience  proves  that  an  army, 
protected  by  gunboats,  even  though  beaten  in  the 
field,  is  safe  from  serious  disaster. 

With  this  experience  and  these  views,  considered 
in  connection  with  the  changed  relative  condition 
of  the  combatants,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  advise  the 
use  of  the  James  River  as  the  route  to  Richmond. 
It  is  at  once  safe,  certain,  and  economical.  It  is 
navigable  to  the  city;  and  there  are,  as  far  as 
is  known,  no -fortifications  of  a  formidable  character 
below  Fort  Darling.  If  our  forces  ascend  the  river 
.to  a  point  above  the  mouth  of  the  Appomattox,  and 
effect  a  landing  there,  it  is  impossible  that  they 
should  fail  to  maintain  themselves,  if  supported,  as 
they  would  be  supported,  by  gunboats  in  ther  river. 
This  being  accomplished,  the  railway  from  Pqters- 
burg  to  Richmond  is  at  our  mercy. 

Next,  there  would  be  no  serious  difficulty  in 
cutting  the  railway  beyond,  which  leads  from  Rich 
mond  to  Danville ;  and  thus  would  the  Confederate 
capital  be  separated  from  the  South,  except  by  the 
route  through  Gordonsville  and  the  mountains  at 
Lynchburg,  and  through  East  Tennessee.  This 


THE   CONDUCT   OF   THE   WAR.  261 

circuitous  and  exposed  line  would  soon  be  broken. 
Indeed,  so  desperate  are  the  fortunes  of  the  rebels, 
and  so  inexorable  are  their  necessities,  that  the  oc 
cupation  of  the  south  bank  of  the  James  River  in 
force  will  be  followed  by  the  evacuation  of  Rich 
mond  without  delay. 

In  any  event  nothing  worse  could  happen  than 
an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  to  dislodge  us. 
This,  as  we  have  demonstrated,  would  be  impos 
sible  ;  and,  if  we  chose  to  trust  to  the  arbitrament 
of  arms  in  the  open  field,  we  could  select  our  own 
positions  with  more  certainty  than  in  the  country 
between  the  Potomac  and  the  Rapidan. 

The  army  can  be  supplied  and  reinforced  as 
easily  upon  the  James  as  upon  the  Potomac ;  while 
the  withdrawal  of  the  rebels  for  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  Johnston  or  Longstreet  would  ena 
ble  us  to  take  possession  of  the  city,  relieve  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  place  it  in  hand  for 
service  elsewhere. 

The  spring  campaign  should  be  commenced  early  ; 
and  it  should  be  prosecuted  with  the  purpose,  and' 
in  the  expectation,  of  overthrowing  the  rebellion 
before  midsummer.  This  is  the  reasonable  demand 
of  the  country,  and,  without  exaggeration,  we  may 
say  that  it  is  the  necessity  of  the  country.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  rebellion  is  in  its  final 
struggle.  Its  friends  do  not  expect  it  to  survive  the 
frosts  of  the  next  autumn. 

It  will  die  with  the  annual  death  of  its  long- 
adored,  greatly  magnified,  but  now  powerless  King 
Cotton.  This  will  happen  by  the  force  of  compres 
sion  and  the  influence  of  time,  without  further 


262  THE   CONDUCT   OF  THE  WAR. 

active  effort  on  our  part.  This  course  is  to  be 
shunned,  however ;  for  it  gives  the  enemies  of  the 
republic,  North  and  South,  an  opportunity  to  em 
barrass  the  country  politically,  and  to  jeopard  the 
election  of  a  Union  man  to  the  Presidency. 

If  the  rebellion  be  not  suppressed  by  August  or 
September,  it  is  not  improbable  that  Davis  will 
abdicate  ;  that  the  rebel  Congress  will  place  supreme 
power  in  the  hands  of  Lee, -who  is  not  embarrassed, 
as  are  the  politicians  of  the  South,  by  pledges  or 
declarations  upon  political  subjects ;  and  that  he 
will  issue  a  proclamation  offering  to  lay  down  his 
arms,  to  surrender  all  public  property,  transfer  the 
guns  and  munitions  of  war  in  the  hands  of  the  rebels 
to  the  United  States,  upon  condition,  that  the  leaders, 
as  well  as  the  masses,  are  pardoned,  and  that  the 
States  resume  their  places  in  the  Union  without 
terms  as  to  their  domestic  institutions.  In  extrem 
ity,  they  will  not  hesitate  to  adopt  this  or  a  corres 
ponding  policy. 

While  the  friends  of  the  Union  could  not  accept 
these  or  any  similar  terms,  it  is  foreseen  that  the 
opposition  would  rally  with  hope  and  with  increased 
confidence  of  success.  The  safety  of  the  country 
requires  a  policy  which  shall  secure  peace  without 
terms.  There  must  be  no  negotiation  ;  there  must 
be  no  treaty ;  there  must  be  no  haggling  about  con 
ditions.  Hence  there  is  an  overpowering  necessity 
for  a  wise  and  vigorous  policy  in  the  conduct  of  the 
war. 

If  the  rebellion  be  not  crushed,  substantially,  by 
the  first  of  August  next,  the  nation  will  be  involved 
in  new  difficulties. 


THE   CONDUCT   OF   THE   WAR.  263 

The  country  has  furnished  men,  it  has  furnished 
money ;  and  the  most  convincing  reasons  exist  for 
the  belief  that  the  staggering  rebellion  will  soon 
be  destroyed. 


264 


SALE  OF  GOLD. 

DEBATE    ON    THE    BILL    AUTHORIZING    THE    SECRETARY    OF    THE 
TREASURY  TO  SELL  GOLD,  MARCH  14,  1864. 

MR.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  agree  with  my  colleague 
.who  addressed  the  House  this  morning  [Mr. 
Alley],  that  the  passage  of  the  joint  resolution, 
as  it  comes  from  the  Senate,  will  have  some  effect 
upon  the  price  of  gold ;  but  I  believe  that  the 
effect  will  be  temporary  only.  The  condition  of 
this  country,  its  necessities,  and  its  fortunes,  jus 
tify  an  attempt,  at  least,  to  put  its  financial  affairs 
upon  a  broader  basis  than  is  contemplated  by  this 
resolution,  either  as  it  went  from  the  House  or  with 
the  amendment  introduced  by  the  Senate. 

It  is  a  peculiar  circumstance,  that,  thus  far,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is  not  publicly  com 
mitted  in  favor  of  the  passage  of  this  measure. 
My  opposition  to  granting  authority  to  the  Secre 
tary  to  sell  gold  does  not  proceed  from  the  appre 
hension  that  he  will  exercise  the  authority  unfaith 
fully,  or  intentionally  to  the  prejudice  of  the  public 
interest ;  but  I  am  opposed  to  granting  this  power, 
because,  in  the  first  place,  I  think  we  have  no 
right  to  grant  it.  I  do  not  speak  of  right  in  the 
sense  of  power,  but  I  mean  to  say  that  we  have 
no  moral  right  to  grant  the  authority.  In  the  next 
place,  if  I  were  satisfied  that  we  had  the  right,  I 


SALE    OF   GOLD.  265 

should  still  think  it  unwise,  in  the  highest  degree, 
to  exercise  it. 

It  has  been  observed,  that,  when  this  resolution 
passed  the  House  and  went  to  the  Senate,  gold 
advanced  from  three  to  five  per  cent  in  the  markets 
of  New  York.  On  Saturday,  it  declined  six  or 
seven  per  cent  below  the  highest  rate  previously 
attained.  I  trust  that  no  man  will  be  influenced  in 
his  vote  by  a  fact  of  this  character ;  for  it  can  be 
explained  in  several  ways.  It  may  be  explained  by 
supposing  that  the  men  who  deal  in  gold,  having 
the  opinion  —  the  honest  opinion,  very  likely  —  that 
the  passage  of  this  measure  will  produce  a  tempo 
rary  depreciation  in  the  price,  prepared  themselves 
for  that  event ;  or  the  rise  in  price  may  have  been 
a  device  on  their  part  to  secure  a  grant  of  authority 
to  the  Secretary  to  make  the  proposed  sales.  But 
it  does  not  follow  that  the  passage  of  this  resolu 
tion  in  either  shape  —  the  shape  in  which  it  passed 
House  or  that  in  which  it  passed  the  Senate  — 
is  calculated  to  affect  permanently  the  price  of 
gold.  We  are  to  judge  the  measure  with  reference 
to  its  effect  upon  the  country  generally,  and  through 
a  long  period  of  time.  In  what  I  say,  I  address 
myself  to  a  condition  of  war.  If  we  soon  obtain 
peace,  —  as  I  trust  we  may  by  the  success  of  our 
arms,  —  the  character  of  our  financial  measures  will 
be  comparatively  unimportant.  Considering  the 
resources  of  the  country,  the  capacity  of  its  people, 
and  its  productive  power  in  a  time  of  peace,  we  feel 
assured  that  the  nation  can  rise  superior  to  the 
effects  of  unfortunate  or  even  unwise  legislation ; 
but,  in  discussing  this  measure,  I  address  myself  to 


266  SALE   OF   GOLD. 

the  probable  condition  of  the  country,  should  the 
war  continue,  not  only  during  the  year  1864,  but 
also  during  the  year  1865. 

If  the  war  shall  thus  continue,  what  is  to  be  the  . 
condition  of  the  country  in  reference  to  the  supply 
and  use  of  coin  ?  In  the  financial  year  of  1864-65, 
there  is  to  be  a  demand  for  coin  to  the  extent  of 
$85,000,000.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  has 
estimated  the  receipts  from  the  custom-houses,  for 
the  same  period  of  time,  at  $70,000,000,  showing  a 
deficit  of  $15,000,000. 

Sir,  I  never  heard  of  this  bill  until  the  morning 
when  it  was  called  up  for  consideration  by  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  and  on  which  I 
submitted  my  amendment  to  the  House.  When 
the  resolution  was  presented,  my  mind  went  back  to 
certain  thoughts  I  had  had,  touching  our  finances ; 
one  of  which  was,  that  the  time  was  coming  when 
it  would  be  difficult  for  the  government  to  secure 
specie  enough  to  meet  its  liabilities.  I  had  sug 
gested  privately  to  my  colleague  who  is  upon  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  [Mr.  Hooper] 
the  propriety  of  imposing  a  tax  on  cotton,  to  be 
paid  in  specie.  I  thought  that  such  a  tax  might 
give  us  from  twenty  to  forty  million  dollars,  which 
might  be  appropriated  to  the  payment,  in  coin,  of 
the  interest  on  the  public  debt.  In  this  connection, 
and  naturally,  I  was  led  to  reflect  on  the  measure 
proposed  by  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means.  I 
supposed,  that,  instead  of  a  surplus  of  coin  in  the 
next  sixteen  months,  there  would  be  a  deficiency. 
Speculators,  who  are  not  responsible  for  the  finan 
cial  condition  of  the  country,  may  give  advice,  either 


SALE   OF   GOLD.  267 

wise  or  unwise,  without  care  or  thought ;  but  I  feel 
bound  to  submit,  that,  in  accordance  with  the  doc 
trines  of  the  Constitution  and  the  principles  of 
liberty  which  we  have  inherited  from  our  ancestors 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  the  responsibility 
for  the  financial  condition  of  the  country  rests  upon 
this  House ;  and  I  submit,  deferentially,  that  who 
ever  upon  this  floor  takes  into  consideration  the 
financial  condition  of  the  country  until  July  next 
only,  and  omits  the  year  that  is  to  follow,  fails  to 
comprehend  the  great  facts  upon  which  the  safety  of 
the  republic  rests.  We  must  look  to  the  next  year, 
as  well  as  to  this.  Sir,  I  was  bred  to  business,  and 
early  instructed  in  the  principle  or  rule  of  commer 
cial  safety,  that  a  merchant  who  has  a  surplus  of 
funds  which  he  does  not  need  for  the  purpose 
of  meeting  his  immediate  liabilities,  but  who  has 
issued  paper  ma.turing  the  next  month  or  the  month 
after,  instead  of  going  into  the  market  and  loaning 
his  temporary  surplus  to  his  neighbor,  or  investing 
it  in  stocks  or  real  estate,  should  go  to  his  creditors 
and  anticipate  his  indebtedness,  and  thus  provide 
for  his  liabilities  and  sustain  his  credit. 

Is  not  the  government  to-day  in  the  position 
of  a  debtor  who  has  more  money  than  he  needs 
at  the  moment,  but  who  will  be  called  upon  in  the 
next  four,  six,  or  twelve  months  to  pay  an  amount 
which  he  cannot  obtain  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
business  during  the  months  when  the  indebtedness 
is  to  mature  ? 

The  purpose  of  this  resolution,  as  adopted  by 
the  House,  is  to  relieve  the  Treasury  of  a  tempo 
rary  surplus,  which,  it  is  alleged  by  the  Committee 


268  SALE  OP  GOLD. 

of  Ways  and  Means,  —  and  the  force  of  their  state 
ment  I  did  not  fail  to  see,  —  is  affecting  unfavorably 
the  business  of  the  country.  It  was  my  purpose, 
by  anticipating  the  payment  of  the  interest  coupons, 
from  time  to  time,  to  carry  the  temporary  surplus 
of  the  present  financial  year  over  to  the  year  1864— 
65,  when,  according  to  the  estimates  of  the  Secre 
tary,  there  will  be  a  deficiency.  I  thought  it  a  wise 
proposition.  I  submit,  deferentially,  to  the  House, 
that  the  facts  have  not  changed.  A  member  of  the 
Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  [Mr.  Hooper], 
whom  I  honor  as  my  colleague,  stated  to  the  House, 
in  the  original  debate,  that  there  would  be  a  surplus 
of  from  ten  to  twelve  million  dollars  on  the  first  of 
July  next.  This  surplus  of  812,000,000,  added 
to  the  estimated  receipts  for  the  year  1864-65, 
makes  an  aggregate  of  $82,000,000.  You  will  be 
called  to  pay,  during  the  year  1864-65,  $85,000,000  ; 
so  that,  if  these  estimates  are  correct,  there  will 
still  be  a  deficit  of  $3,000,000. 

And  now  the  proposition  submitted  to  the  Housa 
and  the  country  is,  that,  instead  of  applying  this 
temporary  surplus  of  ten  or  twelve  million  to  the 
payment  of  coupons  that  are  to  be  paid  in  coin 
unless  the  government  intends  to  repudiate,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  shall  go  into  the  market 
and  sell  this  coin.  One  of  two  things  must  then 
happen,  if  these  estimates  are  true,  and  if  the  war 
continues,  —  and  all  that  I  say  is  on  that  assump 
tion, —  you  will  either  refuse,  in  the  year  1864-65, 
to  pay  your  interest  in  coin,  or  you  will  go  into 
the  market  and  buy  coin  for  the  purpose  at  the 
cheapest  price  at  which  you  can  get  it.  The 


SALE   OF   GOLD.  269 

government  is  in  the  condition  in  regard  to  money 
in  which  it  would  be  in  reference  to  bread  for  the 
army,  if  there  was  a  short  crop  of  grain,  and  the 
government,  having  control  of  a  quantity  neces 
sary  for  the  maintenance  of  the  army,  and  more 
than  could  be  used  within  the  next  three  months, 
but  not  having  a  surplus  beyond  the  requirements 
of  the  next  twelve  months,  should,  in  order  to 
force  down  the  price,  sell  that  which  it  had  in 
store,  put  it  into  the  hands  of  speculators  ready 
to  buy  it,  and  then  trust  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  greedy  men  when  the  exigencies  of  the  country 
should  demand  bread  for  the  army  at  any  cost. 

We  have,  temporarily,  a  surplus  of  money.  And 
what  is  the  proposition?  To  take  ten  or  twelve 
million,  a  temporary  surplus,  put  it  into  the  mar 
kets  of  New  York,  sell  it  to  the  speculators  who  will 
make  a  ring  large  enough  to  buy  it  (they  can  hold 
it  for  six  months  for  two  and  a  half  or  three  per 
cent),  and  when  your  exigencies  come,  when  the 
day  of  your  distress  is  upon  you,  as  it  will  be  if 
the  estimates  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  are 
right,  you  will  be  in  the  power  of  these  men.  I 
ask  whether  the  representatives  of  the  people  are 
prepared  to  authorize  a  measure  so  fruitful  of  disas 
ter,  if  the  war  shall  continue  twelve  or  eighteen 
months  longer. 

It  is  said  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  is 
not  likely  to  act  under  your  authority.  There  is  no 
man  on  this  floor  whose  confidence  in  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury  exceeds  mine.  I  have  known 
him  personally ;  I  have  known  him  somewhat  inti 
mately  ;  and  I  believe,  that  no  public  officer,  from 


270  SALE   OF   GOLD. 

the  establishment  of  the  government  till  now,  has 
exercised  his  high  trusts  with  a  more  sincere  and 
conscientious  regard  for  the  interests  of  the  coun 
try.  But  it  is  not  the  officer  that  is  to  be  clothed 
with  this  authority :  it  is  the  office.  I  am  free  to 
say  that  I  do  not  mean  to  vote  to  intrust  any  public 
officer  with  authority,  except  on  the  ground  of  ne 
cessity  ;  and  while  I  do  not  hesitate  to  give  my  vote 
for  all  necessary  authority  to  enable  the  executive 
to  carry  on  this  war,  while  I  am  not  troubled  by 
the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  while  I 
have  no  apprehension  that  the  liberties  of  the  peo 
ple  of  the  country  are  to  be  wrested  from  them,  I 
yet  maintain  that  it  is  no  time,  when  we  are  con 
ferring  great  and  unexampled  powers  on  executive 
officers  that  are  necessary  to  be  conferred,,  to  confer 
upon  them  also  powers  that  are  unnecessary.  This 
is  the  time,  if  ever,  to  withhold  authority  not  abso 
lutely  indispensable,  in  order,  that,  if  it  should  hap 
pen  that  there  should  be  an  attempt  to  abuse  any  of 
the  powers  which,  in  good  faith,  we  have  granted,  we 
may  still  have  in  our  hands  the  means  of  reclaiming 
those  abused  powers  from  unfaithful  public  servants. 

Mr.  ALLEY.  —  I  desire  to  ask  my  colleague  if  he 
knows  any  thing  more  necessary  than  to  protect 
the  currency  of  the  country  in  the  present  emer 
gency,  and  whether  he  does  not  believe,  as  we 
do,  that  the  possession,  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  of  the  powers  that  we  propose  to  give" 
him  would,  to  some  extent  at  least,  protect  the 
currency. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  will  say  to  my  colleague,  in 
all  frankness,  that,  if  I  had  no  more  faith  in  the 


SALE   OF   GOLD.  271 

« 

efficacy  of  this  measure  than  was  expressed  by  him 
in  his  remarks  to-day,  I  certainly  should  not  vote 
for  it.  I  do  not  think  this  measure  necessary  to 
protect  the  currency.  It  will  prove  a  palliative,  not 
a  remedy. 

Mr.  ALLEY.  —  Will  my  colleague  answer  me  fur 
ther  ?  Does  he  not  believe,  if  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  should  not  exercise  that  power,  the  fact  of 
his  possessing  that  power  will  prevent,  to  a  consid 
erable  extent,  speculation  in  gold? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  The  chief  element  which  enters 
into  speculation  everywhere  is  uncertainty.  Un 
certainty  is  the  basis  of  speculation.  This  measure, 
as  it  comes  from  the  Senate,  introduces  into  the 
business  of  the  country  a  new  element  of  uncer 
tainty  ;  to  wit,  the  will  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury. 

Mr.  HIGBY.  —  Would  not  our  finances  be  in  a 
firmer  condition  by  the  passage  of  the  House  bill, 
without  the  Senate  amendments,  than  its  passage 
with  those  amendments,  and  be  a  greater  check 
upon  speculation  in  the  public  credits  ?  When  a 
surplus  of  gold  had  accumulated,  would  not  the 
anticipation  of  payment,  and  making  payment  in 
amount  as  paper  should  demand,  be  far  more  pow 
erful  in  controlling  the  market  than  to  allow  the 
purchase  of  government  paper  at  the  lowest  price  it 
could  be-  obtained  at  in  market  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  give  an  affirmative  answer  to 
the  questions,  as  far  as  I  understand  them. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  was  saying,  when  interrupted, 
that  one  of  the  chief  elements  of  speculation  is 
uncertainty.  We  know  very  well,  that  the  pre- 


272  SALE   OF  GOLD. 

* 

miums  on  maritime  risks,  in  time  of  war,  are  not 
based  upon  actual  losses  from  privateers,  but  upon 
the  apprehensions  and  fears  of  the  underwriters 
of  what  those  losses  may  possibly  be.  If  you 
give  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  the  power 
to  sell  gold,  in  addition  to  the  power  he  now  has 
to  buy  gold,  it  will  always  be  an  element  of  uncer 
tainty  in  the  gold  market,  in  addition  to  those  ele 
ments  which  exist  at  present ;  and  a  merchant  or 
speculator,  buying  gold  or  selling  gold,  will  always 
take  into  account  the  fact,  that  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  may  go  into  the  market  and  buy  or  sell 
gold,  and  force  it  temporarily  above  or  below  the 
price  at  which  it  was  held  on  the  day  of  the  sale 
or  purchase. 

There  is  yet  another  objection  to  giving  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  this  power.  We  do 
not  know  whether  he  will  exercise  it  or  not ;  and 
this  House  ought  not  to  confer  power  unless  it 
believes  that  an  exigency  will  exist  when  he  ought 
to  exercise  it.  I  believe,  no  such  exigency  can  exist 
while  the  law  of  1862  remains  upon  the  statute- 
book.  On  the  25th  of  February,  1862,  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States  passed  a  loan  bill,  asking 
the  country  and  the  world  to  furnish  $500,000,000 
to  enable  us  to  carry  on  the  war.  In  that  bill,  we 
introduced  two  pledges.  The  first  was,  that  nothing 
but  coin  should  be  received  in  payment  of  .custom 
house  duties ;  secondly,  that  this  coin  should  be 
appropriated,  first,  to  the  payment  of  the  interest  on 
the  public  debt,  and,  secondly,  that  a  sinking  fund 
should  be  created  by  the  use  of  the  coin  in  purchase 
of  bonds,  equal  to  one  per  cent  of  the  whole  public 


SALE   OP  GOLD.  273 

debt.  The  balance,  if  any,  was  to  go  into  the  gene 
ral  treasury.  What  is  the  proposition  which  conies  to 
us  from  the  Senate  ?  It  contains,  to  be  sure,  a  prom 
ise  to  secure  the  payment  of  the  interest  on  the  public 
debt ;  but  no  attention  is  given  to  the  second  great 
pledge,  —  the  establishment  of  a  sinking  fund, — 
which  each  year  should  be  increased  in  an  amount 
equal  to  one  per  cent  of  the  public  debt.  The  re 
demption  of  this  pledge  will  require,  for  the  years 
1863-64  and  1864-65,  not  less  than  $15,000,000. 
I  ask  gentlemen,  in  all  sincerity,  how  they  are  to 
defend  themselves  to  their  constituents  and  to  the 
world,  if  they  disregard  this  solemn  obligation.  Is 
there  any  defence  ?  I  know  of  none. 

A  gentleman,  in  endeavoring  to  satisfy  me  that 
this  bill  ought  to  pass,  assures  me  that  the  world 
does  not  know  that  we  have  made  this  pledge. 
I  cannot  say  whether  the  world  knows  it  or  not.  I 
know  it.  This  is  sufficient  for  me.  I  know  that 
this  pledge  was  made,  and  therefore,  so  long  as  I 
have  power,  I  intend  to  keep  it.  I  will  attempt  to 
keep  it,  though  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means 
make  no  provision  therefor.  I  ask,  What  defence, 
what  excuse,  what  justification,  is  offered?  Is  it 
said  that  the  government  intends  to  secure  this 
gold  at  a  cheaper  rate  by  and  by  ?  I  ask  my  col 
league  on  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  if 
to-morrow  I  were  to  give  him  a  bond  under  seal  that 
I  would  convey  to  him  in  fee,  in  one  year,  a  certain 
estate,  and  the  next  day  he  should  hear  that  I  had 
conveyed  it  by  warranty  deed  to  a  third  person, 
would  he  not  feel,  that,  at  that  very  moment,  I  had 
violated  my  faith  ? 

18 


274  SALE  OF  GOLD. 

Mr.  STEVENS.  —  Suppose  the  piece  of  property 
was  to  be  conveyed  a  year  hence,  and  he  concluded 
to  sell  it  to  somebody  else,  have  I  a  right  to  say 
any  thing  before  the  year  comes  round,  and  before 
I  see  whether  or  not  he  has  then  any  thing  to  pay 
with  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  The  gentleman  will  observe 
that  that  is  a  different  case  entirely  from  this,  be 
cause  here  the  law  says  that  "  from  and  after  the 
first  of  July,  1862,"  the  government  will  do  so  and 
so.  The  day  of  performance  has  already  passed. 
Nearly  two  years  have  transpired,  and  you  have  not 
yet  taken  the  first  step  towards  the  creation  of  this 
sinking  fund.  And  now,  when  you  say  you  have 
twelve  or  twenty  million  of  gold,  and  that  you  do 
not  need  it  for  paying  interest,  I  turn  to  the  statute, 
and  ask  you  why  you  do  not  establish  the  sinking 
fund  which  you  have  agreed  to  establish. 

Mr.  HOOPER.  —  Will  the  gentleman  yield  a  mo 
ment  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  wish  to  say  one  word  more 
to  my  colleague  upon  the  committee  before  I  yield. 
Would  not  my  colleague  [Mr.  Hooper] ,  whenever  he 
found  that  I  had  conveyed  away  the  estate  by  war 
ranty  deed  to  a  third  person,  say  I  had  already  vio 
lated  my  obligation,  although  he  would  have  no 
legal  right  to  call  upon  me  for  a  performance  of  the 
condition  of  my  bond  before  the  year  transpired  ? 
If,  incidentally,  he  should  mention  the  matter  to  me, 
and  I  should  say,  "  I  am  a  rich  man,  but  I  hap 
pened  to  be  a  little  embarrassed,  and  thought  it  con 
venient  to  get  some  money  more  economically  than 
by  borrowing,  and  hence  sold  this  estate  in  the 


SALE   OF   GOLD.  275 

market ;  but,  in  a  year,  I  shall  be  in  funds,  and  then 
I  will  repurchase  this  property  and  convey  it  to  you, 
and  so  comply  with  the  conditions  of  my  bond," 
would  he  not  have  a  right  to  complain  ?  Who  does 
not  see  that  it  might  be  out  of  my  power  to  comply 
with  my  obligations  ?  If  to-day  I  could  repurchase 
the  property,  it  does  not  follow  that  the  party  own 
ing  the  property  will  not  change  his  mind.  Or  he 
may  die,  and  his  heirs  or  trustees  may  be  the  parties 
with  whom  I  should  have  to  deal,  and  my  colleague 
might  be  compelled  to  go  into  court  and  seek  dam 
ages  for  the  loss  of  the  land  which  I  had  promised 
him. 

Mr.  HOOPER.  —  I  rise  to  answer  the  question.  I 
should  say,  if  I  heard  he  had  made  the  transaction 
such  as  he  represented,  knowing  him  so  well,  I 
should  not  believe  it,  unless  I  had  it  from  his  own 
lips. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  You  surely  ought  to  have  as 
much  confidence  in  the  faith  of  your  country  as  in 
mine. 

Mr.  HOOPER.  —  But  I  desire  to  ask  my  colleague 
how  he  proposes  to  put  this  amount  into  the  sinking 
fund  in  gold.  I  want  to  know  the  mode  and  man 
ner  of  doing  it.  I  ask  him,  as  a  man  of  business, 
if  he  were  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  how  he 
would  do  it. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  have  thought  of  the  mode. 
The  law  is  not  explicit ;  but  I  suppose  the  intention 
to  be,  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  should  take 
the  surplus  of  gold,  and,  after  paying  the  interest  on 
the  public  debt,  buy  bonds  in  the  market  and  set 
them  aside,  stamp  them  as  belonging 'to  the  sinking 


276  SALE  OF  GOLD. 

fund,  pay  the  interest  each  six  months,  and  invest 
the  interest  and  the  annual  one  per  cent  of  the  capi 
tal  of  the  debt  in  additional  bonds,  to  be  treated  in 
the  same  manner  each  six  months  afterwards.  I  do 
not  know  whether  it  would  be  competent  for  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Treasury  to  purchase  the  United-States 
notes  with  the  gold,  and  then  with  the  notes  pur 
chase  the  government  bonds.  I  say,  I  do  not  know 
whether  the  Secretary  would  be  authorized  to  do 
this.  What  I  do  know  is,  that  he  would  have  the 
right  to  take  the  gold  and  buy  the  bonds.  Whether 
he  has  a  right  to  take  the  intermediate  steps  is  not 
so  clear. 

Another  objection  I  have  to  granting  this  power 
is,  that,  while  I  have  the  utmost  confidence  in  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  I  know  very  well  he 
could  not  personally  execute  this  trust.  He  must 
employ  agents.  I  do  not  know  whether  those 
agents  will  be  trustworthy  or  not,  though  I  know 
he  would  adopt  every  safeguard  in  his  power.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  know  all  the  markets  of  specula 
tion  would  be  agitated  to  their  very  depths,  in  order 
to  ascertain  what  the  purposes  of  the  Secretary  were. 

Mr.  STEVENS.  —  Does  not  the  Secretary  now  em 
ploy  agents  to  keep  all  this  gold  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Do  not  misunderstand  me.  I 
say,  that,  when  he  purposes  to  make  a  sale  of  gold, 
he  must  employ  somebody  to  do  it.  He  cannot  do 
it  himself,  and  therefore  the  information  that  gold 
is  to  be  sold  must  be  communicated  to  at  least  one 
person ;  and,  when  it  is  communicated  to  one  per 
son,  we  do  not  know  how  many  other  persons  may 
get  the  information. 


SALE  OP  GOLD.  277 

This  is  a  matter  which  affects  not  only  the  price 
of  gold,  but  also  all  the  business  relations  of  the 
country.  It  is  not  possible  to  affect  the  price  of 
gold  permanently,  unless  you  first  or  simultane 
ously  affect  the  price  of  exchange.  Our  exports, 
during  the  last  year,  amounted  to  nearly  $332,000,- 
000,  including  foreign  merchandise  exported,  esti 
mated  in  the  currency  of  the  country.  Our  im 
ports  were  over  $252,000,000,  estimated  in  the  gold 
currency  of  other  countries.  There  was  a  balance 
against  us,  which  was  met  by  the  export  of  specie, 
to  the  amount  of  $54,000,000.  If  a  merchant  has 
exchange  which  is  payable  in  gold  in  Great  Britain, 
he  can  command  gold  there ;  and,  if  he  cannot  buy 
gold  here  as  cheaply  as  he  can  get  it  there,  he  will 
get  it  there.  Therefore,  I  submit  the  proposition, 
based  upon  all  the  experience  of  this  country  and 
of  the  world,  that  gold  cannot  rule  higher  perma 
nently  than  exchange.  The  price  of  exchange  is 
based  upon  the  exports  and  imports  of  the  country. 
Whenever  your  exports  are  greater  than  your  im 
ports,  you  can  bring  down  the  price  of  gold,  and 
you  cannot  permanently  reduce  it  by  any  other 
means.  A  sale  of  State  or  national  bonds  abroad 
will  yield  exchange,  and  reduce  the  price  of  gold. 

Now,  sir,  even  if  this  war  goes  on,  there  will  be  a 
changed  and  more  favorable  condition  in  our  finan 
cial  affairs.  We  have  information  that  the  receipts 
of  cotton  from  the  South  amount  to  about  eight 
thousand  bales  a  week.  The  necessities  of  the  coun 
try,  at  the  present  moment,  do  not  exceed  four  thou 
sand  bales.  AVe  shall  soon  be  exporting  cotton  at 
the  rate  of  three  or  four  thousand  bales  a  week, 


278  SALE   OF   GOLD. 

which  will  yield  us  seven  or  eight  hundred  thousand 
dollars  in  exchange.  In  the  next  place,  we  have 
been  importing  a  great  quantity  of  linen  and  woollen 
goods  and  wool,  on  all  of  which  duties  have  been 
paid,  and  for  which  our  exports  have  been  sent 
abroad.  We  shall  gradually  diminish  these  imports 
when  our  mills  begin  to  run,  and  the  use  of  cotton 
is  restored  to  what  it  was  previous  to  the  opening  of 
the  war.  These  facts  tend  to  show,  that,  hereafter, 
the  exchange  will  be  in  our  favor ;  that  the  price  of 
gold  will  be  gradually  reduced ;  that  our  imports 
will  be  diminished ;  that  the  revenue  derived  from 
the  custom-houses  will  be  reduced,  and  thereby  the 
means  of  the  government  to  pay  the  interest  on 
the  public  debt  in  coin  will  be  lessened  also.  In 
these  facts  we  find  a  reason  why  we  should  not  throw 
the  millions  of  surplus  coin  we  now  have  into  the 
market.  I  regard  this  measure,  then,  as  a  tempo 
rary  expedient,  but  as  one  not  calculated  to  produce 
beneficial  results  during  a  long  period  of  time. 

I  come  next,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  a  statement  with 
reference  to  measures  of  public  policy,  which  seem 
important,  and  which,  I  think,  will  gradually  and 
ultimately  furnish  us  some  relief.  The  first  is 
economy.  I  do  not  care  to  dwell  upon  this  topic, 
but  it  is  in  this  House  that  economy,  in  regard  to 
national  expenditures,  must  be  practised,  if  it  is 
practised  anywhere. 

The  second  point  is  taxation.  If  the  Committee 
of  Ways  and  Means  shall  report  a  bill  embracing,  im 
some  degree,  the  principle  contained  in  the  resolu 
tion  offered  by  the  gentleman  from  New  York  [Mr.i 
Freeman  Clark]  a  few  days  ago,  by  which  the  rev- 


SALE   OF  GOLD.  279 

enue  shall  be  increased  to  two  or  three  hundred  mil 
lion  dollars  a  year,  we  shall  have  taken  a  great 
and  important  step  toward  the  restoration  of  our 
finances. 

Next,  it  is  a  pressing  necessity  —  I  do  not  know 
how  the  difficulty  is  to  be  met  and  overcome,  but  it  is 
a  pressing  necessity  —  that  the  circulation  of  paper  be 
reduced.  When  the  war  opened,  the  circulation  of 
paper  was  hardly  more  than  two  hundred  million 
dollars,  issued  by  the  State  banks  of  the  country. 
The  last  report  brings  up  the  issue  by  these  banks 
to  $238,000,000.  We  have  issued  something  like 
four  hundred  million  of  United-States  notes.  We 
have  also  in  circulation  certificates  of  indebtedness 
and  five-per-cent  scrip,  redeemable  in  one  and  two 
years.  These  pass  from  hand  to  hand,  and  enter 
into  the  currency  of  the  country.  The  latter  are 
taken  up  by  the  banks  because  they  bear  interest, 
and  the  banks  then  put  into  circulation  the  non- 
bearing-in'terest  legal-tender  United-States  notes, 
which  they  have  heretofore  retained  for  the  purpose 
of  redeeming  their  circulation.  To  the  extent  of 
the  issue  of  this  paper,  the  currency  of  the  country 
has  been  increased.  In  addition  to  that,  we  are  now 
inaugurating  what  I  believe  to  be  in  itself  a  wise 
system,  and  one  which  ought  to  be  maintained,  but 
which  (I  am  speaking  of  the  national-bank  system) 
will  ultimately  increase  the  circulation  of  the  coun 
try  $300,000,000. 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  surprise,  that,  under  such 
circumstances,  the  currency  of  the  country  appears 
to  be,  and  is  in  fact,  depreciating.  In  regard  to  the 
gold  speculators,  I  believe,  that,  in  the  run  of  six 


280  SALE   OF  GOLD, 

months,  gold  is  neither  higher  nor  lower  on  account 
of  what  they  can  do.  They  work  on  a  certain  basis, 
which  is  the  value  of  exchange.  They  may,  for  a 
few  days,  force  gold  above  the  price  of  exchange ; 
but,  ultimately,  the  price  of  gold  in  the  market 
depends  on  the  price  of  exchange,  which  is  equiva 
lent  to  gold ;  and  the  rate  of  exchange  depends 
upon  the  relation  between  the  exports  and  im 
ports. 

The  country  needs  about  11,000,000  of  ex 
change  per  day,  while  the  demand  for  gold  is  only 
about  one-fourth  as  much ;  or,  considered  together, 
the  demand  for  foreign  exchange  and  for  gold  is 
about  one  and  one-fourth  million  dollars  per  day. 
The  supply  and  demand  for  exchange  must  there 
fore  fix  the  price  of  gold.  Hence,  until  you 
can  do  something  to  decrease  the  rates  of  ex 
change,  you  can  do  but  little  to  diminish  the  price 
of  gold. 

I  wish  to  make  one  suggestion,  and  I  do  it 
with  great  deference.  It  is,  whether  it  would  not 
be  wise,  under  existing  circumstances,  for  the 
government  to  authorize  a  loan,  principal  and 
interest  payable  in  foreign  countries,  either  in  Lon 
don,  Hamburg,  or  Frankfort,  to  run  for  a  long 
time,  —  say  twenty,  thirty,  or  forty  years,  —  be 
cause  it  may  be  twenty,  thirty,  or  forty  years 
before  the  government  can  pay  the  entire  debt, 
even  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances. 
This  loan  should  be  put  at  a  low  rate  of  interest, 
say  four  per  cent,  which  would  be  a  cheap  rate 
for  the  government.  The  bonds  should  not  bo 
sold  in  the  outset,  because  if  you  sell  the  gov- 


SALE  OF   GOLD.  281 

eminent  securities  in  foreign  countries  for  a  given 
sum,  and  draw  against  those  securities  and  sell 
the  exchange  in  the  market,  you  force  down  the 
rate  of  exchange,  and  the  government  is  a  loser ; 
but  if  you  can  make  a  special  deposit  of  these 
bonds,  drawing  against  them  to  a  certain  amount, 
with  the  right  to  sell  the  bonds  whenever  you 
please,  and  then  put  the  exchange  into  the  market, 
the  effect  of  it  will  be  to  force  down  the  price  of 
exchange.  Exchange  being  forced  down,  gold 
will  follow,  because  the  exchange  can  be  con 
verted  into  gold ;  and  thus  you  do  something  to 
strengthen  the  government,  and  restore  a  better 
relation  between  the  price  of  paper  and  the  price  of 
gold. 

I  made  this  suggestion  to  a  banker,  and  his  reply 
was  this :  "  The  bonds  might  as  well  be  sold  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic."  I  say  no.  There  is  a  very 
material  difference  ;  it  is  this  :  we  are  bound  to  look, 
not  only  at  the  immediate  effects  upon  business  by 
the  loans  we  are  creating,  but  we  are  bound  to  look 
at  their  ultimate  and  permanent  effects.  In  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  it  would  not  have  been  wise 
to  borrow  money  abroad ;  but  circumstances  have 
changed,  and  it  may  be  now  expedient  to  do  that 
which,  in  the  beginning,  it  was  not  expedient  to  do. 
It  is  for  our  interest  that  all  money  borrowed  abroad 
should  be  borrowed  on  securities  that  cannot  be 
readily  sold  in  the  United  States. 

My  reason  for  the  opinion  is  this :  if  our  present 
bonds  were  negotiated  abroad  upon  a  basis  of  gold 
at  sixty  per  cent  premium,  and  if  gold  should  fall 
to  twenty-five  per  cent  premium,  as  we  hope  it  will 


282  SALE    OF   GOLD, 

during  the  present*  summer,  should  we  have  mili 
tary  successes,  the  bonds  would  be  sent  back  to  this 
country,  and  would  pay  a  large  profit  to  those  who 
had  bought  them  abroad.  The  return  of  these 
bonds  would  create  a  demand  for  gold  and  exchange, 
force  up  prices,  and  re-inaugurate  the  evils  against 
which  we  are  now  contending.  I  think,  the  better 
way  is  to  place  a  certain  amount  of  the  loan  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic  for  the  sake  of  the  ex 
change,  by  which  we  can  force  down  the  price  of 
gold,  and  yet  put  that  loan  on  such  terms  that  it 
cannot  be  negotiated  in  this  country.  That  can  be 
done  by  making  interest  and  principal  payable 
abroad,  and  putting  the  interest  at  a  rate  below  the 
current  rates  at  home,  so  that  people  here  would  be 
reluctant  to  buy  it.  My  suggestion  is,  that,  if  we 
can  create  a  four-per-cent  loan  of  one  or  two  hun 
dred  million  for  a  long  period  of  time,  place  it 
abroad,  draw  against  it,  force  down  the  price  of 
exchange  and  the  price  of  gold,  we  can  ultimately 
sell  these  bonds  at  par. 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  I  ask  the  House  to  con 
sider  which  of  the  two  measures  before  us  is  best 
calculated  to  strengthen  the  credit  of  the  country. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  am  one  of  those  who  believe  that 
this  nation  is  able  to  carry  a  debt  of  two,  three,  or 
four  thousand  million  dollars,  pay  the  interest  regu 
larly,  and  ultimately  pay  the  principal.  I  believe  it 
can  be  done  by  adhering  to  sound  principles,  and 
that  moral  as  well  as  financial  considerations  must 
enter  into  our  policy.  If  we  have  pledged  the  na 
tion's  faith  even  to  our  own  hurt,  I  say  we  should 
keep  it.  If  other  nations,  to  say  nothing  of  the 


SALE  OF  GOLD.  283 

people  of  this  country,  in  looking  at  our  legislation 
in  order  to  ascertain  what  security  they  have  for 
their  claims  upon  our  treasury,  see  that  we  do  not 
hesitate,  when  an  exigency  not  very  great  is  upon 
us,  to  take  some  portion  of  this  coin  which  we  have 
pledged  to  a  particular  use  and  devote  it  to  another 
use,  will  it  not  weaken  our  credit  abroad  ?  Will  not 
the  people  of  other  nations  justly  say,  "  There  is  no 
dependence  to  be  placed  upon  the  credit  of  the 
United-States  government:  without  any  special 
exigency,  they  have  already  taken  a  portion  of  the 
money  they  had  pledged  to  us,  and  appropriated  it 
to  another  use  ;  and  how  can  we  tell,  that,  in  some 
exigency  that  may  arise, 'they  will  not  take  the  re 
mainder,  and  leave  us  to  receive  the  principal  and 
interest  of  the  debt  they  owe  us  in  irredeemable 
paper  currency  ? " 

But  if,  on  the  contrary,  these  nations,  in  looking 
at  our  legislation,  see  that  we  pay  our  interest  in 
coin,  as  we  agreed,  and,  having  an  amount  of  coin 
on  hand  larger  than  is  required  to  pay  the  interest  on 
our  public  debt,  we  devote  it  to  a  sinking  fund,  with 
which  we  lay  a  foundation  for  the  redemption  of 
the  principal  of  that  debt ;  if  they  see,  that  in  the 
midst  of  a  war  the  magnitude  of  which  is  such  as 
the  world  never  saw  before,  with  a  public  debt  of 
ten  or  twelve  hundred  million,  we  not  only  adhere 
to  our  obligations  to  pay  the  interest  in  coin,  but  we 
anticipate  that  interest,  —  it  will  strengthen  our 
credit  at  home  and  abroad,  and  enable  us  to  nego 
tiate  loans  upon  favorable  terms. 

Mr.  Speaker,  is  there  any  man  who  can  compare 
the  results  which  will  be  likely  to  follow,  and  which, 


284  SALE   OF  GOLD. 

it  seems  to  me,  will  certainly  follow  a  line  of  policy 
such  as  I  have  marked  out,  with  the  results  that 
will  follow  the  act  of  throwing  some  ten  or  twelve 
million  dollars  into  the  gambling-shops  of  New 
York,  with  the  expectation  that  it  will  reduce  the 
price  of  gold  there  four  or  five  per  cent,  and  hesi 
tate  as  to  the  course  he  ought  to  pursue  ?  If  these 
men  in  future  should  have  the  government  in  their 
power,  they  will  wring  the  last  drachma  of  your 
possessions  from  you.  Who,  in  comparing  these 
results,  can  hesitate  in  deciding  which  course  will 
be  most  beneficial  to  the  government? 


285 


PERSONAL  EQUALITY  AND  PUBLIC  PROS- 
PERITY. 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  BALTIMORE,   APRIL  1,   1864. 


is  the  first  time,  gentlemen,  that  I  have  had 
the  opportunity  to  speak  in  a  slave  State  upon 
the  subject  of  slavery.  Indeed,  in  a  pretty  long 
public  experience,  I  have  spoken  in  a  slave  State 
but  once  before  in  my  life  ;  and,  as  I  come  from  a 
Commonwealth  which  has  not  within  these  last  three 
years  made  that  rapid  progress  in  opinion  upon  the 
subject  of  slavery  which  you  have  made,  it  is  possi 
ble  that  I  may  seem  to  be  a  conservative  man. 

I  introduce  what  I  have  to  say  with  an  observa 
tion  perhaps  as  radical  and  possibly,  if  it  be  offen 
sive  at  all,  as  offensive  as  any  that  I  shall  make. 
A  statesman  of  Virginia  more  than  fifty  years  ago, 
declared  that  the  institution  of  slavery  converted 
every  slaveholder  into  a  tyrant.  I  judge  from  the 
tabular  statements  which  I  have  seen  published, 
setting  forth  the  distribution  of  political  power  in 
this  Commonwealth,  that  not  only  has  here  every 
slaveholder  been  a  petty  tyrant,  but  that  the  institu 
tion  of  slavery  has  been  a  vast  system  of  political 
despotism  to  the  white  people  of  this  State,  as  well 
as  a  system  of  personal  despotism  to  the  black 
people. 


286          PERSONAL  EQUALITY  AND 

I  congratulate  you  on  the  great  movement  for 
which  you  are  indebted  to  the  traitors  of  the  South 
and  the  traitors  among  you  who  inaugurated  this 
rebellion,  demonstrating  again,  in  the  history  of 
nations  and  of  peoples,  that  Divine  Providence 
sometimes  chooses  vile  instruments  to  work  out  its 
beneficent  designs.  To  these  men  are  you  indebted 
for  the  opportunity  to  strike  at  once  from  yourselves 
the  shackles  of  political  despotism  in  which  you  have 
been  bound,  and  to  strike  from  your  fellow-beings, 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  call  them  your  brethren  (Jef 
ferson,  the  apostle  of  Democracy,  did  not  hesitate  to 
call  the  Africans  residing  in  Virginia  his  brethren, 
and  I  think  you  are  not  better  than  Jefferson), — 
to  strike  from  your  brethren  the  personal  shackles 
in  which  they  have  been  bound. 

This  is  an  unusual  opportunity,  such  as  does  not 
often  come  to  a  people ;  and  I  suppose  it  is  true 
here,  as  it  is  true  everywhere  and  in  all  ages  of  the 
world,  that  to  the  mass  of  the  people,  the  hard- 
handed  men,  to  that  class  known  in  British  life  and 
British  history  as  the  yeomanry,  is  the  country  to 
be  indebted  for  its  redemption  from  the  great  curse 
of  slavery.  Gentlemen,  if  you  are  not  prepared  to 
work  for  emancipation  upon  the  ground  of  its  exact 
justice,  upon  the  ground  of  its  conformity  to  the 
natural  rights  of  man  and  to  the  laws  of  God,  then 
you  had  better  withhold  your  hands  until  you  are 
satisfied  that  it  is  just  to  the  black  man  that  he 
should  be  emancipated.  If  you  do  not  so  believe, 
you  are  unfit  to  put  your  hands  to  this  great  work, 
which  means  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the 
laws. 


PUBLIC   PKOSPERITY.  287 

My  friend,  Mr.  Davis,  has  spoken,  in  passing, 
of  the  charge  made  against  him  and  against  those 
associated  with  him,  that  they  favor  the  equality 
of  the  black  man  with  the  white  man.  I  am  not 
for  the  equality  of  the  black  man  with  the  white 
man,  nor  for  the  equality  of  the  white  man  with  the 
black  man.  I  do  not  suppose  they  are  equal.  I 
am  not  for  the  equality  of  any  two  among  you, 
because  I  do  not  believe  you  are  equal.  I  do  not 
recognize  my  friend,  Mr.  Davis,  as  my  equal :  I  do 
not  claim  that  I  am  his  equal.  We  differ  in  a  great 
many  things ;  we  probably  are  not  exactly  alike  in 
any  thing:  but  that  declaration,  that  great  funda 
mental  truth  uttered  by  Jefferson  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  that  "  all  men  are  created  equal," 
is  the  ideal  truth  towards  which  you  must  work 
in  the  struggle  for  emancipation.  All  men  are 
created  equal ;  not  that  they  are  equal  in  height, 
not  that  they  are  equal  in  strength,  not  that  they 
are  equal  in  moral  qualities  or  intellectual  powers. 
Such  equality  is  not  according  to  the  law  of  Provi 
dence,  as  we  understand  it.  The  Declaration  of 
Independence  means  exactly  this,  —  that  no  man 
is  created  under  any  political  subordination  to 
any  other  man;  and  the  ballot  is  the  evidence, 
the  symbol,  the  pledge,  by  which  we  recognize  that 
every  other  man  is  politically  our  equal,  that  he  has 
a  right  to  take  a  share  in  the  government.  That 
is  what  a  popular  government  means.  Do  you  not 
understand,  that,  if  you  lay  down  a  rule  by  which 
you  exclude  any  portion  of  the  people  from  a  par 
ticipation  in  public  affairs,  in  that  rule  you  have 


288          PERSONAL  EQUALITY  AND 

recognized  a  principle  which  may  be  carried  still  fur 
ther,  and  which  may  ultimately  exclude  you  ? 

This  doctrine  of  exclusion  is  the  doctrine  of  king 
craft  ;  it  is  the  doctrine  of  despotism.  If  you  may  ex 
clude  some  men  from  political  power  because  they  are 
not  as  wise,  or  because  they  are  not  as  learned,  or 
because  they  are  not  as  strong,  or  because  they  are 
not  as  wealthy,  the  principle,  generally  applied,  re 
sults  ultimately  in  this,  —  that  he  who  is  the  wisest, 
or  the  most  learned,  or  the  strongest,  or  the  bravest, 
or  the  wealthiest,  is  to  rule  all  the  rest ;  and  that 
is  despotism.  It  is  the  rule  of  democracy,  that  each 
man,  without  regard  to  any  other  qualification  or 
condition  or  circumstance,  has  a  right  to  participate 
in  public  affairs.  But  in  this  State,  owing  to  the 
existence  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  which  creates 
a  common  interest  among  a  class  of  men  who,  ac 
cording  to  the  ancient  Virginia  doctrine,  are  tyrants 
from  the  very  fact  that  they  are  slaveholders,  the 
slaveholding  class  have  so  organized  your  political 
system  that  one  man  in  one  county  has  the  political 
power  of  two  men  or  three  men  in  another  county. 

I  do  not  know  how  you  feel  in  Maryland,  but  in 
Massachusetts  we  would  not  recognize  such  a  doc 
trine  for  a  day.  We  would  move  that  old  Com 
monwealth  from  shore  to  mountain,  and  every  voice 
should  be  raised  and  every  arm  nerved  to  strike 
down  a  system  so  disorganizing  in  its  character  and 
contrary  to  the  principles  of  justice,  though  not 
only  eighty  thousand  slaves  should  be  emancipated, 
but  the  fourteen  thousand  slaveholders  should  be 
trampled  in  the  dust.  Your  system  is  a  tyranny 
to  the  whites  in  the  free  section  of  the  State. 


PUBLIC   PROSPERITY.  289 

Gentlemen,  it  has  come  to  this,  that  you,  free 
white  men,  if  you  think  it  any  privilege  or  any  good 
fortune  that  you  are  free  white  men,  are  compelled 
in  self-defence  to  decide  whether  you  will  strike 
down  an  institution  which  is  subversive  of  human 
rights,  the  rights  of  white  men  and  the  rights  of 
black  men.  If  you  liberate  these  eighty-seven  thou 
sand  colored  people,  I  do  not  know  what  they  will 
do :  I  do  not  think  you,  in  discussing  this  question, 
have  any  right  to  inquire.  If  there  is  a  man  who 
is  apprehensive  that  by  some  means  or  other  the 
negro  will  come  to  be  his  equal,  then  I  apprehend 
that  that  man  instinctively — and  instinct  very  often 
is  God  teaching  through  the  human  heart  —  feels 
that  he  is  pretty  near  the  level  of  the  negro,  and 
that  very  soon  the  negro  will  rise  to  his  level. 

A  man  who  has  confidence  in  his  own  capacity 
is  not  troubled  about  other  people,  as  to  whether 
they  are  getting  along  well  in  the  world  or  not ;  but 
those  who  just  make  a  shamble  through  life  and 
never  take  one  firm  step  on  God's  solid  earth,  not 
having  confidence  in  themselves,  are  continually 
laboring  under  the  fear,  that,  by  some  means  or 
other,  they  are  soon  to  be  upset. 

I  hope  the  laboring  people  will  ponder  this  ques 
tion  well.  Occasionally  in  my  own  State  and  in  my 
own  district  there  have  been  appeals  to  the  laboring 
people,  that,  if  slavery  were  abolished,  the  negroes 
would  all  go  North,  and  would  there  come  in  com 
petition  with  the  laboring  men  in  the  cities  and  large 
towns,  and  that  finally  there  would  be  a  dearth  of 
labor,  a  scarcity  of  the  means  of  living,  and  great 
evils  would  ensue.  I  went  into  the  city  of  Lowell 

19 


290          PERSONAL  EQUALITY  AND 

just  on  the  eve  of  the  last  congressional  election. 
That  rumor  had  been  circulated.  I  said  to  them, 
"  Gentlemen,  I  think  the  case  is  just  this :  The 
negro  hereafter  will  not  live  in  a  slave  State ; "  and 
that  is  exactly  what  I  would  like  to  say  to  the  slave 
holders  of  Maryland,  —  the  negroes  will  not  live  in 
slave  States  any  longer,  they  are  to  live  in  free 
States. 

And  I  said  to  the  people  in  Massachusetts,  "  The 
question  is  just  here  :  If  you  give  your  votes  in 
such  a  way  as  to  secure  freedom  in  the  Southern 
States,  where  the  homes  of  the  slaves  are,  the 
slaves  will  stay  there,  and  the  few  who  are  here 
will  return."  I  also  put  this  question  to  them, 
and  I  would  ask  the  slaveholders  the  same  question, 
—  if  they  ever  heard  of  the  negro  running  away 
from  hot  weather,  if  they  ever  heard  of  the  negro 
running  away  from  the  miasma  of  a  swamp,  if 
they  ever  heard  of  his  deserting  his  home  or  leaving 
the  place  where  he  was  born,  for  any  reason  except 
one,  that  he  was  in  slavery. 

As  an  answer  to  those  who  demand  compensation, 
I  would  say  this  :  Slavery  does  not  exist  in  the 
North ;  it  never  shall,  by  the  grace  of  God  and  the 
firm  will  of  the  people  of  this  country,  exist  again 
in  the  eleven  rebellious  States. 

We  are  to  have  a  free  zone  on  the  South,  from 
the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande,  where  there  shall 
everywhere  be  unfurled  the  flag  of  freedom. 

Now,  then,  slaveholders  of  Maryland,  what  is 
before  you  ?  Your  negroes,  if  you  continue  to 
maintain  the  institution  of  slavery,  will  not  stay 
in  Maryland :  they  will  either  go  to  Virginia,  where 


PUBLIC   PROSPERITY.  291 

there  will  be  freedom,  or  they  will  go  North ;  and, 
although  there  is  in  the  Constitution  a  provision 
that  fugitives  shall  be  delivered  up,  you  will  find 
after  this  that  there  will  be  nobody  North,  and  that 
there  will  be  nobody  South,  to  deliver  them  up ; 
and  you  will  find  it  also  very  difficult  to  make  the 
Constitution  work  without  somebody  to  enforce  it. 
We  are  determined  not  to  enforce  it.  You  may  just 
as  well  understand  it  as  not.  Slaveholders,  no  more 
negroes  are  to  be  caught  anywhere. 

Under  these  circumstances,  what  are  your  negroes 
worth?  With  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  free,  the 
North  star  inviting  them  in  one  direction,  and  the 
Southern  cross  in  the  other,  what  are  your  negroes 
worth  ?  Who  will  catch  them  when  they  run  away  ? 
Nobody.  Then,  if  you  are  to  be  compensated  at  all, 
you  are  to  be  compensated  according  to  the  value 
of  them.  Get  your  jury  ;  see  what  they  are  worth  : 
they  are  worth  nothing  to  you  to-day.  If  they  have 
any  shoes  on  their  feet,  their  shoes  are  worth  more 
to  the  master  than  the  body  that  stands  above 
them.  There  is  no  just  demand ;  there  is  no 
equity ;  there  is  no  claim.  It  is  the  misfortune  of 
this  particular  kind  of  property.  A  very  peculiar 
institution  it  turns  out  to  be  now, — they  always  said 
it  was  "peculiar," — it  turns  out  to  be  peculiar. 
It  has  no  defenders  anywhere.  The  day  of  "  North 
ern  men  with  Southern  principles  "  is  over.  It  has 
gone,  and  never  will  return. 

I  have  also  to  say  that  it  is  not  only  due  to  the 
Southern  men  who  have  been  engaged  in  this 
rebellion,  that  this  war,  with  all  its  sacrifices,  is 
upon  us ;  but  it  is  due  very  largely  to  the  men  of 


292          PERSONAL  EQUALITY  AND 

the  border  States,  and  to  Maryland  among  them. 
It  was  my  fortune  to  be  a  member  of  the  Peace 
Congress  of  1861 ;  and  when  the  records  of  that 
Congress  are  published,  and  the  speeches  given  to 
the  world,  you  will  find  that  Maryland,  by  her 
delegates,  contributed  something  to  bring  on  this 
rebellion.  If  she,  with  the  other  border  States, 
had  stood  firm  under  the  flag,  and  said  to  the  seced 
ing  and  then  rebellious  States,  "  If  you  persist  in 
the  course  on  which  you  have  entered,  we  will 
make  war,  we  will  establish  the  authority  of  the 
government,  we  will  maintain  the  integrity  of 
the  Union,"  even  then,  in  the  month  of  February, 
1861,  they  could  have  arrested  the  rebellion. 

They  did  not  do  it;  they  pandered  to  treason. 
Instead  of  going  home  to  their  own  people  in  the 
border  slave  States  and  telling  them  the  truth,  they 
asked  us  of  the  North  to  go  home  to  our  people 
and  tell  them  a  lie.  We  refused  to  do  it.  In  that 
Convention  I  declared  three  things ;  I  will  repeat 
them  here.  The  first  was,  that  I  abhorred  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery ;  the  second  was,  that  if,  to  save  the 
Union,  it  was  necessary  to  make  further  concessions 
to  the  institution  of  slavery,  I  would  have  no  part 
in  saving  the  Union  ;  and  the  third  was,  —  and  I  say, 
if  there  had  been  a  response  to  this  third  statement 
by  the  slaveholders  of  the  border  States  and  the  con 
servative  men  of  the  free  States,  the  rebellion  might 
have  been  arrested,  —  I  said  to  those  gentlemen, 
standing  face  to  face  with  Rives  and  Seddon,  of  Vir 
ginia  and  other  men  from  North  Carolina,  and  from 
Tennessee,  and  from  Missouri,  "  If  you  persist  in  this 
rebellion,  we  shall  march  our  armies  to  the  Gulf  of 


PUBLIC   PROSPERITY.  293 

Mexico,  or  you  will  march  your  armies  to  the  great 
lakes."  .In  that  great  crisis  in  the  country's  his 
tory,  nothing  but  firmness,  decision,  a  declaration 
that  the  Union  should  never  be  severed  without 
war,  would  have  arrested  the  rebellion.  Jefferson 
Davis  and  his  allies  now  engaged  in  this  rebellion 
are  not  more  guilty,  in  my  judgment,  before  the 
country  for  the  horrors  and  outrages  of  this  unex 
ampled  conflict  than  are  those  timid,  time-serving, 
conciliating,  compromising  men  of  the  North,  who 
in  that  day  did  not  dare  to  declare  for  the  people 
the  truth  that  was  in  the  people's  hearts,  that  this 
Union  should  never  be  severed. 

How  is  it,  then,  that  these  men,  slaveholders, 
generally  the  allies  and  confederates  of  the  con 
spirators  of  the  South,  ask  you,  the  bone  and  sinew 
of  Maryland,  to  contribute  of  your  labor  to  com 
pensate  them  for  the  eighty-seven  thousand,  more 
or  less,  of  slaves  that  they  hold  in  violation  of  the 
law  of  God,  and  with  no  better  authentic  record 
of  the  right  they  assert  than  the  statute,  if  there  be 
a  statute,  framed  by  themselves  or  their  ancestors, 
declaring  their  title  to  that  which  never  by  the  law 
of  God  was  recognized  as  property  ? 

While  looking  at  this  question  of  emancipation 
in  Maryland  merely  as  a  pecuniary  or  industrial 
question,  I  should  say  it  were  cheap  for  Maryland 
to  buy  all  these  slaves  at  three  hundred  dollars 
apiece ;  still  I  would  never  counsel  as  a  friend,  nor 
consent  if  I  were  an  inhabitant  of  Maryland,  that 
one  dollar  should  be  paid,  even  though  it  would 
be  cheap  to  buy  them  at  three  hundred  dollars  or 
five  hundred  dollars  a  head.  Justice  is  above  all 


29-i  PERSONAL   EQUALITY   AND 

price ;  and,  when  justice  is  done,  the  heavens  do 
not  fall,  but  they  bend  and  accept  the  homage  of 
man.  Now  is  the  time  when  the  people  of  Mary 
land  should,  in  the  reconstruction  of  their  govern 
ment,  found  it  on  the  principle  of  justice.  Go  to 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  —  "all  men  are 
created  equal,"  —  and  found  your  State  upon  that 
great  doctrine. 

Will  you  allow  me  to  allude  to  Massachusetts  ? 
We  founded  our  government  in  1780  upon  the 
doctrine  that  all  men  are  created  free  and  equal ; 
and,  although  previous  to  that  time  there  were  a  few 
slaves,  the  first  judge  that  ever  sat  upon  the  bench 
when  the  question  came  up  of  the  right  of  property 
in  slaves,  looked  at  our  Bill  of  Rights,  and  said, 
"  Here  it  is  declared  that  all  men  are  created  free 
and  equal ;  and  you  have  no  right,  under  this 
declaration  of  rights,  to  hold  this  human  being. 
He  is  free."  Thus,  without  any  legislation  what 
ever,  but  by  the  declaration  of  rights  in  our  Con 
stitution,  and  the  decision  of  an  upright  judge, 
slavery  was  stricken  down. 

Thus  plant  your  system  of  government  in  your 
Constitution,  recognizing  the  equality  of  man,  and 
strike  down  the  institution  without  compensation  to 
the  slaveholder.  I  cannot  doubt,  that,  when  you 
have  made  Maryland  a  free  State,  you  will  see  her 
take  new  and  rapid  strides  in  industry,  in  wealth, 
in  the  development  of  your  resources.  I  do  not 
like  to  compare  Maryland  to  my  own  State  in 
natural  advantages ;  and  yet  Maryland,  in  soil,  in 
extent  of  territory,  in  mineral  resources,  is  incom 
parably  superior  to  Massachusetts.  In  Massachu- 


PUBLIC   PROSPERITY.  295 

setts,  we  have  persistently,  through  two  hundred 
years,  kept  one  thing  steadily  in  view,  —  the  educa 
tion,  elevation,  and  protection  of  the  individual  man. 
We  are  constantly  educating  in  our  public  schools, 
at  the  public  expense,  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  chil 
dren. 

We  have  a  hundred  institutions  of  learning 
scattered  over  the  State,  endowed  by  the  public  will, 
maintained  by  universal  taxation,  in  which  the 
child  of  the  poorest  man  can  get  a  better  education 
to-day  than  the  son  of  the  richest  man  could  obtain 
in  any  institution  in  America  when  the  Revolution 
ary  War  opened.  By  developing,  educating,  per 
fecting  the  individual  man,  we  add  to  individual 
and  public  wealth.  The  statistics  show  (I  hope  you 
will  not  consider  me  aggressive  in  my  remarks)  that 
an  individual  man  in  Massachusetts,  in  his  produc 
tive  power,  is  equal  to  .two  and  a  half  men  in 
Maryland,  on  an  average. 

This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  we  believe  that  the 
brain  and  the  moral  faculties  educated  and  developed 
are  the  basis  of  individual  and  public  prosperity. 
We  do  not  believe  in  ignorance  ;  we  do  not  believe  in 
degradation :  but  we  believe  in  the  elevation  of  every 
individual,  however  humble  he  may  be  in  his  origin 
or  in  his  surroundings. 

The  few  black  people  that  we  have  among  us  we 
attempt  to  elevate ;  and,  though  prejudices  exist 
among  us  against  the  colored  race,  we  still  have 
done  this.  In  one  of  our  normal  schools  for  the 
education  of  young  ladies  as  teachers,  I  have  seen 
a  colored  girl  with  seventy-five  or  eighty  or  one 
hundred  young  ladies  of  white  complexion,  sitting 


296          PERSONAL  EQUALITY  AND 

at  the  same  desk,  pursuing  the  same  studies,  noth 
ing  ever  occurring  which  indicated  that  the  white 
ladies  in  the  school  regarded  her  other  than  as  a 
sister. 

At  the  graduation  of  the  class  to  which  she 
belonged,  by  the  vote  of  her  associates  of  the  class 
she  was  elected  to  write  and  deliver  the  closing 
poem.  I  saw  her  afterwards  a  teacher.  She  is  now 
at  Port  Royal,  off  South  Carolina. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  colored  race 
can  equal  the  white  race  :  but  I  say  that  for  two 
centuries  and  more  you  have  held  them  in  chains ; 
for  two  centuries  and  more  you  have  depraved 
them ;  for  two  centuries  and  more  you  have  de 
prived  them  of  their  just  rights  before  God ;  and 
now  the  time  has  come  when  you  have  at  once 
before  you  the  opportunity  and  the  duty  to  "  loose 
the  bonds,  and  let  the  oppressed  go  free." 

Let  them  do  that  which  they  have  the  opportu 
nity  and  the  capacity  for  doing.  Establish  public 
schools ;  educate  them ;  improve  them ;  give  them 
an  opportunity :  do  for  them  what  it  was  thought 
of  sufficient  importance  by  Dr.  Adams,  of  Boston, 
when  he  delivered  a  eulogy,  after  the  death  of  Mr. 
Choate,  upon  that  illustrious  man,  to  mention  in  his 
sermon,  as  characteristic  of  the  person  whom  he 
eulogized.  He  said  that  Mr.  Choate,  walking  across 
the  fields  one  day,  saw  a  bug  on  its  back.  With 
his  cane  he  turned  it  over,  and  said,  "  Get  on  your 
legs,  and  take  a  fair  start  in  the  world."  What 
I  ask  for  the  black  race  is  that  you  put  them  on 
their  feet,  and  give  them  a  fair  start  in  the  world. 
If  they  distance  you,  it  will  be  because  they  have 


PUBLIC  PROSPERITY.  297 

some  capacity  which  you  have  not.  My  judgment 
is,  that  you  will  keep  sufficiently  far  ahead  not  to  be 
disturbed  by  them ;  but,  if  they  get  ahead  of  you, 
they  will  leave  the  road  behind. 

There  is  another  consideration.  You  cannot 
just  now  —  I  do  not  know  what  may  be  the  condi 
tion  of  things  fifty  or  one  hundred  years  hence 

—  but  you  of  Maryland  cannot  just  now  afford  to 
part  with  the  black  people.     They  are  capable  of 
performing  a  great  deal  of  labor.     You  need  them 
to  cultivate  your  lands,  to  develop  your  resources ; 
and  you  cannot,  without  loss,  pursue  a  policy  which 
drives  them  from  your  State.     If  you  continue  as  a 
slave  State,  with  a  free  region  South  and  a  free  region 
North,  the  negroes  will  escape,  and  you  will  be  left 
with  a  greatly  reduced  laboring  population.     While 
you  continue  as  a  slave  State,  the  free  laborers  of 
the  North  and  of  Europe  will  not  come  here.     Any 
man  who  is  not  driven  into  exile  as  it  were,  who 
has  a  home  in  a  free  State,  and  is  obliged  to  labor 
with  his  hands  for  the  means  of  subsistence,  does 
not  migrate  to  a  slave  State.     In  a  free  State,  —  I 
speak  of  my  own  State,  because  there  I  know  more 
of  the  people  than  I  know  of  the  people  in  any 
other  State,  —  labor  is  not  only  rewarded,  but  it  is 
honored.     The  dignity  of  labor  is  taught  in  every 
public   school ;   it   is   instilled   by   the   example  of 
every  father  and  of  every  mother ;  it  is  the  belief  of 
the  churches ;  it  is  the  universal  public  sentiment, 
that  a  laboring  man  is  "  a  man  for  a'  that."     But  in 
a  slave  State,  where  slavery  is  the  controlling  power, 

—  I  suppose  it  is  not  so  in  the  city  of  Baltimore, 
where  there  is  a  large  predominance  of  free  popular 


298          PERSONAL  EQUALITY  AND 

tion,  and  a  public  sentiment  controlled  by  free 
opinion,  —  but  in  a  slave  State,  and  in  a  slavehold- 
ing  community,  labor  is  considered  degrading,  and  a 
laboring  man  is  not  regarded  as  a  respectable  man. 
Therefore  a  man  trained  in  a  free  State,  and  de 
pendent  upon  his  own  hands  for  his  means  of 
subsistence,  does  not  go  into  a  slave  State. 

If,  then,  you  continue  the  institution  of  slavery, 
your  present  laborers  will  escape,  and  new  ones  will 
not  come,  and  your  nine  thousand  square  miles  of 
territory  will  be  comparatively  a  waste ;  your  mines 
will  not  be  developed ;  your  water-power  will  not  be 
improved.  On  the  other  hand,  if  you  abolish  sla 
very,  and  proceed  to  educate  your  children,  black 
and  white,  make  labor  respectable,  you  not  only  re 
tain  the  productive  power  of  this  people,  but  you 
bring  other  laborers  to  you,  arild  you  build  up  a 
great  commonwealth  upon  this  central  shore  of  the 
Atlantic.  I  saw,  the  other  day,  a  statement  that 
you  had  by  estimate  six  thousand  million  of  tons 
of  coal  underlying  the  surface  of  Maryland.  Six 
thousand  million  of  tons,  at  a  dollar  per  ton,  will 
pay  the  present  debt  of  the  United  States  twice 
over.  I  do  not  know  but  that  we  shall  come  here 
to  get  the  coal  at  twenty-five  cents  a  ton  to  pay  our 
debt. 

When  I  look  at  your  natural  facilities,  your  ad 
vantages,  I  am  astonished  that  you  have  not  more 
fully  developed  them  in  the  past ;  and  I  can  attri 
bute  the  neglect  only  to  the  institution  of  slavery. 
While  in  my  own  State,  on  Cape  Cod,  on  the  elbow 
which  extends  from  Barnstable  all  the  way  round 
to  Provincetown  (as  every  one  who  looks  at  the 


PUBLIC   PROSPERITY.  299 

map  sees),  fifty  or  sixty  miles,  there  is  not  a  foot 
of  fruitful  land;  and  yet  along  this  narrow  cape  you 
find  people  not  only  in  the  possession  of  a  compe 
tency,  but  living  in  luxury.  On  this  cape  there  is 
a  fact  which  has  no  parallel  on  the  continent,  —  a 
garden,  the  soil  of  which  was  imported  from  Oporto. 
When  we  thrive  on  sand,  and  import  the  soil  in 
which  we  raise  our  vegetables,  what  ought  you  to 
do  here  ? 


300 


RIGHTS  OF  THE  REBEL   STATES. 

SPEECH  UPON  THE  "  BILL  TO  GUARANTEE  TO  CERTAIN  STATES, 
WHOSE  GOVERNMENTS  HAVE  BEEN  USURPED  OR  OVERTHROWN, 
A  REPUBLICAN  FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT,"  DELIVERED  IN  THE 
HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  MAY  4,  1864. 

1\/TR.  SPEAKER,  —  Before  any  steps  can  be 
-LJJ-  safely  taken  for  the  organization  of  local  gov 
ernments,  either  by  or  for  the  people  inhabiting  the 
territory  included  within  the  eleven  once-existing 
States,  but  now  rebellious  districts,  of  the  Union,  it 
is  necessary  for  Congress  and  the  country  to  come 
to  an  understanding  of  the  legal  and  constitutional 
relations  subsisting  between  those  people  and  the 
Government  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  my' chief  purpose  —  indeed,  I  may  say  that  it 
is  my  only  purpose  —  to  contribute  something,  if  hap 
pily  I  may,  to  the  attainment  of  that  common  under 
standing  ;  but,  before  I  proceed  to  a  discussion  of 
the  questions  involved  in  the  bill  now  under  consid 
eration,  I  beg  the  indulgence  of  the  House  while  I 
allude  briefly  to  the  remarks  made  by  the  gentleman 
from  Ohio,  my  colleague  upon  the  committee  that 
reported  this  bill  [Mr.  Ashley],  in  reference  to  the 
policy  of  the  President  in  Louisiana  and  Arkansas, 
and  to  the  conduct  of  General  Banks,  in  his  admin 
istration  of  the  Department  of  the  Gulf. 


RIGHTS   OF  THE   REBEL   STATES.  301 

It  ought  to  attract  observation,  that,  since  this 
rebellion  opened,  the  Thirty-seventh  Congress  com 
menced  its  existence,  and  ceased  to  exist ;  that  this 
Congress  is  now  closing  the  fifth  month  of  its  first 
session ;  and  that  up  to  this  time  no  efficient,  indeed 
no  legislative  steps  whatever,  have  been  taken  by 
which  the  executive  is  to  be  guided  in  the  affairs  of 
the  people  occupying  the  territory  that  has  been  re 
claimed  from  rebel  domination.  Under  these  cir 
cumstances,  I  think  it  due  to  the  country  that  this 
House,  at  least,  should  do  nothing  which  conveys 
any  reflection  upon  his  policy,  unless  that  policy  be 
clearly  and  manifestly  in  contravention  of  the  Con 
stitution,  or  of  the  well-ascertained  and  admitted 
principles  of  the  government. 

When  the  Mississippi  River  was  opened  to  naviga 
tion  ;  when  the  subordinates  of  the  rebel  government 
were  separated  from  the  capital  of  the  so-called  Con 
federacy  ;  when  the  populous  parts  of  Louisiana  were 
torn  from  rebel  dominion,  and  the  State  of  Arkan 
sas,  in  various  ways,  indicated  that  there  was  an 
existing  opinion  among  the  people  in  favor  of  a  re 
turn  to  the  allegiance  which  was  due  from  them  to 
this  government, — the  executive  had  but  one  of  three 
courses  before  him :  either  to  be  silent,  to  be  inactive  ; 
to  govern  by  military  authority  alone ;  or  to  estab 
lish  a  civil  government,  or  at  least  to  take  initiatory 
steps  for  the  establishment  of  such  a  government. 
It  was  unquestionably  his  right  and  duty,  in  the 
absence  of  all  legislative  action,  to  govern  these  dis 
tricts  of  country  by  military  power  as  fast  and  as 
far  as  they  were  reclaimed. 

I  agree  with  what  has  been  so  often  said  upon  this 


302  EIGHTS   OF   THE   EEBEL   STATES. 

floor,  that,  as  far  as  practicable,  we  should  avoid 
the  exercise  of  military  authority  in  the  civil  affairs 
of  the  people.  I  do  not  know  that  any  thing  has 
been  done  in  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  in  the  re-es 
tablishment  of  civil  authority,  that  is  in  contraven 
tion  of  the  known  principles  of  our  government. 
The  President  has  initiated  steps  for  the  organiza 
tion  of  civil  authority  ;  and,  in  the  absence  of  legisla 
tive  action,  I  hold  it  to  have  been  his  duty  to  take 
steps  in  that  direction.  Whatever  may  be  our  opin 
ion  of  the  President  on  certain  points,  —  and  I  do  not 
stand  here  or  anywhere  as  his  defender,  —  but  admit 
ting  that  he  has  marked  peculiarities,  and  ad 
mitting  also  a  lack  of  executive  control  over  those 
intrusted  with  the  performance  of  administrative 
duties,  I  yet  think  we  ought  to  have  confidence 
in  a  statesman  who  from  the  year  1858,  when  he 
carried  on  the  memorable  contest  in  Illinois  with 
Douglas,  until  now,  has  been  true  to  the  principles 
of  human  liberty  and  true  to  the  application  of  those 
principles  under  the  Constitution  to  the  people  of 
the  country,  both  white  and  black. 

A  life  of  devotion  to  principle,  a  life  of  service, — 
and  I  make  this  remark,  not  only  with  reference  to 
the  President,  but  to  his  subordinate  who  is  charged 
with  the  administration  of  affairs  in  Louisiana, —  a 
life  of  service  and  a  life  indicating  capacity,  should 
not  be  set  aside  even  in  the  presence  of  errors  or  of 
temporary  disasters.  Therefore,  though  the  Presi 
dent  may  have  made  mistakes  in  the  affairs  of 
Louisiana  and  Arkansas,  it  ill  becomes  any  man, 
who  believes  in  the  principles  of  human  liberty,  and 
that  they  are  destined  to  control  this  continent,  to 


EIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.  303 

arraign  the  executive.  He  should  stand  justified 
when  he  has  acted  in  good  faith,  with  loyalty  to  the 
Constitution,  and  with  just  regard  to  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  this  great  people.  These  remarks  are 
also  alike  applicable  to  my  friend  who  is  charged 
with  the  conduct  of  affairs  in  Louisiana.  For  twenty 
years  and  more  I  have  known  General  Banks.  I 
have  known  him  to  be  a  man  of  capacity,  struggling 
against  adverse  influences  and  adverse  fortune,  al 
most  from  the  moment  he  crossed  the  threshold  of 
manhood  to  the  present  time.  He  has  often  been 
frowned  on  by  circumstances  ;  but  he  has,  in  all  the 
emergencies  of  his  life,  risen  superior  to  the  attacks 
of  enemies,  and  even  sustained  himself  against  the 
assaults  of  fortune.  Whatever  other  men  may 
think,  it  is  my  firm  belief,  even  in  the  presence  of 
what  seems  to  be  a  temporary  disaster  in  military 
operations  in  Louisiana,  that  General  Banks  will  do 
his  duty  to  the  country,  and  redeem  the  territory 
west  of  the  Mississippi  River  from  the  thraldom  of 
the  rebellion. 

Still  further,  without  entering  into  an  examination 
of  particular  things  done  in  Louisiana,  I  assert  that, 
from  the  moment  New  Orleans  was  wrested  from 
the  grasp  of  the  rebels  until  now,  there  has  been  no 
part  of  our  territory  reclaimed  from  their  control 
in  which  the  rights  of  the  citizens  have  been  as  well 
protected  as  in  Louisiana,  or  where  there  has  been 
so  little  of  personal  trouble  and  suffering,  especially 
among  the  black  race.  To  be  sure,  wages  have  been 
fixed  for  them ;  but  they  have  been  saved  from  the 
lash  of  the  taskmaster ;  they  have  been  free  ;  they 
have  been  at  liberty  to  choose  their  own  places  of 


304       RIGHTS  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

labor ;  and  Louisiana  is  to-day  relieved  from  the 
institution  of  slavery.  And  further,  upon  informa 
tion  received  from  many  sources,  I  say  that  Louisiana 
is  not  only  free  from  slavery  through  the  President's 
proclamation,  but  she  is  to  be  free  permanently, 
through  the  fact,  that  her  people  are  being  identified, 
day  by  day  and  week  by  week,  with  the  institutions 
and  principles  of  freedom.  On  many  of  tlie  planta 
tions,  schools  have  been  opened,  under  the  direction 
of  General  Banks,  for  the  education  of  children. 
Thus  freedom  is  becoming  the  public  policy  in  Lou 
isiana,  not  through  proclamations,  not  through  legis 
lation,  not  through  the  Constitution  alone,  but 
through  the  settled  conviction  of  the  people,  that 
slavery  is  wrong,  and  that  freedom  is  right. 

And  now  I  come  to  what  I  purpose  to  present  in 
the  way  of  argument  in  favor  of  the  passage  of  this 
bill.  It  is  necessary  in  the  beginning  that  we  un 
derstand  the  legal  and  constitutional  relations  sub 
sisting  between  the  people  of  the  rebel  districts  of 
the  country  and  the  national  government.  Nobody 
denies  that  we  are  in  a  war  which  taxes  our  capacity 
and  resources.  The  question  is  asked,  and  it  has 
been  often  discussed,  Who  is  responsible  for  this 
war  ?  The  time  will  come  when  the  question  will  be 
of  no  consequence.  I  am  not  sure  that  the  time  has 
not  come  already.  I  think  that  the  responsibility 
for  the  war  is  in  the  institution  of  slavery,  in  its  in 
trinsic  incompatibility  with  freedom  everywhere  and 
always.  It  was  incompatible  in  the  beginning ;  and 
it  was  accepted  as  an  existing  fact  in  the  States  of 
the  country,  merely  because  our  fathers  saw  no  way 
of  escaping  from  its  malign  influence,  and  also  be- 


RIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.  305 

cause  they  labored  under  the  hope,  which  has 
proved  thus  far  a  delusion,  that  slavery  was  tempo 
rary,  and  would  gradually  disappear  ;  that  freedom 
was  permanent,  and  would  become  universal. 

Slavery  has  increased  and  strengthened  in  this 
country  under  the  influence  of  two  considerations  : 
first,  the  apparent  pecuniary  advantages  to  be  de 
rived  from  it.  The  slaveholder  and  the  slavehold- 
ing  communities  were  deceived.  The  result  is  seen 
in  the  great  fact,  that  the  slave  States,  with  a  more 
inviting  climate,  with  a  more  fertile  soil,  have  less 
accumulated  wealth  than  is  possessed  by  the  free 
States  as  the  products  of  the  labor  of  one  or  two 
hundred  years.  There  are  no  two  slave  States  in 
this  Union  that  Massachusetts  could  not  have  pur 
chased  in  the  open  market  when  the  rebellion  com 
menced.  In  this  remark  I  exclude  the  idea  of 
property  in  human  beings.  The  greater  wealth  of  the 
free  States  is  due  to  the  circumstance,  that  slavery, 
instead  of  being  a  profitable,  was  an  impoverishing 
institution.  But  men  rested  in  the  belief  that  it 
was  profitable,  and  therefore  they  sought  to  maintain 
and  extend  it. 

The  other  reason  for  fostering  and  extending  sla 
very  in  this  country  is  found  in  the  circumstance 
that  the  politicians,  South  and  North,  gained  power 
by  it.  Chiefly,  indeed  exclusively  as  far  as  the 
North  is  concerned,  are  they  who  sit  on  the  other 
side  of  the  house,  and  their  political  predecessors, 
responsible  for  this  unholy  alliance. 

The  spur  of  this  rebellion  was  in  the  census  of 
1860.  It  is  a  memorable  fact,  which  has  been 
noted  often,  that  in  1820,  when  the  census  disclosed 

20 


306  EIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

the  truth  as  to  the  growing  power  of  the  North,  as 
compared  with  that  of  the  South,  and  again  in  1830, 
and  again  in  1850,  we  were  on  the  brink  of  a  revo 
lution.  At  these  several  epochs,  this  great  fact  ap 
peared  with  full  force,  and  Southern  leaders  were 
aroused  for  the  moment  in  the  hope  that  they  could 
strike  down  in  some  way  or  other  the  power  of  free 
dom  upon  this  continent.  In  1860,  they  saw  it  was 
impossible  for  them  to  continue  in  the  ascendant, 
and  therefore  they  sought  a  separation. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  South  has  been  guided  by 
men  of  sense  and  capacity.  They  did  not  enter  upon 
this  revolution  without  counting  its  cost.  They 
estimated  the  cost  upon  the  basis  of  facts  which 
were  in  their  possession,  and  the  evidence  which  was 
in  their  possession  tended  to  this  result:  that 
there  would  be  no  war ;  that  separation  could  be 
effected  without  a  contest  of  blood  on  their  soil.  In 
the  Peace  Congress,  it  was  the  constant  cry  of  the 
secessionists,  "  Give  us  the  assurance,  radical  men 
of  the  North,  that  there  shall  be  no  war."  And  it 
was  there,  and  at  that  moment,  that  Northern  men 
failed  to  assert  the  great  truth  which  was  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  that,  if  these  men  persisted  in 
the  attempt  to  secure  secession,  there  would  be  war. 
I  believe,  if  Northern  men  and  men  from  the  border 
States  had  been  faithful  to  truth  and  duty,  the 
calamity  of  secession  would  have  been  averted. 
Mr.  Seddon,  the  present  Secretary  of  War  for  the 
rebellious  States,  occupied  fifteen  minutes  of  the 
time  of  the  convention,  after  a  motion  was  made  to 
adjourn  sine  die,  in  imploring  the  members  of  that 
Congress  to  give  them  the  assurance  that  there 


RIGHTS  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES.        807 

should  be  no  war.  The  South  believed  that  there 
would  be  no  war.  How  came  they  to  entertain  that 
belief  ?  They  knew  that  we  had  two  and  a  half  men 
for  every  one  at  the  South.  They  knew  that  we  were 
vastly  their  superiors  in  all  the  material  resources 
of  war.  How  caine  they  to  believe  that  we  would 
not  exercise  the  powers  which  we  had  ?  I  can  ex 
plain  it  only  upon  one  ground,  the  ground  disclosed 
in  the  letter  of  Franklin  Pierce,  the  ground  dis 
closed  in  the  message  of  James  Buchanan  of  De 
cember,  1860,  that,  if  there  was  war,  it  would  be  in 
the  North. 

I  will  take  the  responsibility  of  reading  an  ex 
tract  from  a  speech  made  in  the  Peace  Congress  by 
a  Northern  man,  —  Mr.  Stockton,  of  New  Jersey.  I 
have  copied  it  from  the  notes  prepared  by  Mr.  Chit- 
tenden,  and  they  correspond  with  my  own  minutes 
made  at  the  time,  and  with  my  recollection  of  the 
remarks  made  by  Mr.  Stockton.  He  said :  — 

"  I  know  that  this  Union  cannot  be  dissolved  without  a 
struggle.  Will  you  hasten  the  time  when  we  shall  begin 
to  shed  each  other's  blood  ?  Force  fifteen  States  !  Why, 
you  cannot  force  New  Jersey  alone.  Force  the  South ! 
Why,  they  won't  stop  to  count  forces.  Neither  side  can 
be  frightened.  Don't  think  of  it.  You  cannot  frighten 
the  North  any  more  than  you  can  a  Roman  soldier. 
You  cannot  frighten  the  South.  You  cannot  frighten 
either  any  easier  than  the  chieftain  whom  the  Roman  poet 
has  immortalized. 

"  When  men  meet  to  save  their  country,  they  must  be 
prepared  to  offer  up  every  thing,  to  sacrifice  their  lives,  if 
neeessary.  How  can  men  stop  for  platforms  which  will 
destroy  their  country? 


308  RIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.' 

"  I  appeal  to .  the  brotherhood,  the  fraternity,  of  the 
North.  My  friends,  peace  or  war  is  in  your  hands.  You 
hold  the  keys  of  peace  or  ruin.  You  tell  us  not  to  hasten 
this  matter.  Well,  you  don't  realize  the  facts,  the  conse- 
•quences.  No  one  does.  Do  you  talk  here  about  regi 
ments  for  invasion,  for  coercion  ?  You,  gentlemen  of  the 
North,  you  know  better.  I  know  better.  For  every  regi 
ment  raised  there  for  coercion,  there  will  be  another 
regiment  raised  for  resistance  to  coercion.  If  no  other 
State  will  raise  them,  remember  New  Jersey. 

"  Pause,  gentlemen.  Stop  where  you  are.  You  will 
bring  strife  to  your  own  doors,  to  your  very  hearthstones, 

—  bloody,  desperate  strife.     The  war  will  be  in  your  own 
homes,  among  your  own  families.     Under  ordinary  circum 
stances,  you  would  hesitate.      If  the  question  was  about 
the  tariff,  you  would  hesitate,  and  look  at  the  awful  conse 
quences." 

It  was,  as  I  verily  believe,  such  declarations  as 
this  which  led  the  South  to  engage  in  a  mad  crusade 
for  the  destruction  of  the  government.  They  natu 
rally  supposed,  that,  after  a  very  short  period  of  com 
motion,  the  North  would  accept  what  they  demanded, 

—  a  separation  of  the   Union.      They  failed :  the 
North  could  not  afford  to  see  this  Union  dissolved. 
It  had  not  the  power  to  submit  to  its  dissolution. 
Gentlemen  upon  this  floor  and  elsewhere,  I  appre 
hend,  make  a  great  mistake  when  they  suppose  that 
the  Union  depends  on  the  Constitution.     The  Con 
stitution,  in  its  preamble,  declares  that  the  object  for 
which  it  was  framed  was  "  to  form  a  more  perfect 
Union,"  implying  a  previous  existence  as  a  Union  ; 
and  we  know  that  the  articles  of  confederation  im 
plied  also  the  existence  of  a  Union.     The  Declara- 


BIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.  309 

tion  of  Independence,  in  its  first  sentence,  sets  forth 
the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  colonies :  "  When 
in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes  necessary 
for  one  people  to  dissolve  the  political  bands  which 
have  connected  them  with  another,  and  to  assume 
among  the  powers  of  the  earth  the  separate  and 
equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of  nature  and  of 
nature's  God  entitle  them,"  <fcc. ;  thus  assuming 
in  1776  the  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  colonies, 
of  the  unity  of  the  'continent.  That  unity  cannot 
be  broken.  It  is  now  disturbed ;  it  cannot  be 
destroyed. 

The  only  question,  then,  in  which  we  have  any 
voice,  is,  whether  we  shall  pursue  a  policy  by  which 
the  Union  may  be  restored  on  the  basis  of  freedom, 
or  whether,  like  cowards,  we  are  to  lie  down  and  suf 
fer  the  ruthless  hand  of  despotism  to  triumph  over 
us.  Either  a  republican  government  under  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  or  a  despotism 
guided  by  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  successors,  is  to 
be  the  rule  of  public  life  on  this  continent.  Sir, 
whatever  differences  of  opinion  we  may  have  as  to 
the  policy  which  has  governed  the  administration  in 
the  conduct  of  the  war,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that, 
at  the  present  time,  as  in  the  beginning  of  this  con 
troversy,  the  chief  hope  of  the  rebels  is  drawn  from 
the  assurances  given  by  men  belonging  to  the 
Democratic  party.  The  confidence  of  the  South 
to-day  is  not  so  much  in  the  armies  which  they 
control,  as  in  the  possible  ascendency  of  a  party  in 
the  North  by  whose  success  agreements,  conditions, 
and  arrangements  may  be  made,  and  their  indepen 
dence  recognized. 


310       EIGHTS  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

Gentlemen  upon  the  other  side  of  the  house  indi 
cate  that  they  do  not  accept  this  as  true.  I  make 
here  a  qualification.  The  gentleman  from  New 
York,  from  the  fifth  district  [Mr.  Fernando  Wood] , 
whom  I  do  not  now  see  in  his  seat,  says  that  there 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  war  Democrat.  I  do  not 
agree  with  him.  There  are  war  Democrats  in  this 
House,  and  thousands  of  them  in  the  country. 
What  I  do  say  is,  that  there  can  be  no  such  party 
as  a  Democratic  party  in  favor  of  the  prosecution 
of  the  war.  It  is  illogical  that  there  should  be  a 
Democratic  party  in  favor  of  the  war.  The  admin 
istration,  the  Union  party,  is  in  favor  of  its  prose 
cution.  Whenever  a  logical  issue  is  made  against 
that  party,  it  must  be  made  upon  the  ground  that 
the  war  is  not  to  be  prosecuted.  How  can  a.  man 
in  this  crisis  of  the  country's  life,  who  regards  the 
salvation  of  the  Union  as  of  more  consequence  than 
any  thing  else,  differ  from  those  who  support  the 
administration  in  the  prosecution  of  the  war  ? 
They  only  have  a  logical  ground  of  difference  who 
believe  that  the  war  is  wrong,  and  that  it  ought  at 
once  to  cease.  Therefore  it  follows,  that  gentlemen 
on  the  other  side  of  the  house  who  believe  that  the 
war  ought  to  be  prosecuted,  can,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  find  no  efficient  means  for  carrying  out  their 
views,  except  in  allying  themselves  with  those  who 
also  believe  that  the  war  should  be  prosecuted. 
The  men  in  any  party  who  have  logic  can  control 
that  party ;  and  therefore,  without  going  into  any 
inquiry  whether  the  gentlemen  who  are  for  peace 
upon  that  side  of  the  house  have  more  capacity 
than  the  gentlemen  who  are  for  war,  I  still  predict 


EIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.  311 

that  the  gentlemen  who  are  for  peace  will  control. 
They  have  a  logical  foundation  on  which  to  stand, 
and  they  will  guide  the  Democratic  party.  There 
may  be  war  Democrats  ;  but  a  Democratic  party  in 
favor  of  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  cannot  be  main 
tained  permanently. 

It  is  necessary  further,  as  it  seems  to  me,  that  we 
should  understand  the  relations  subsisting  between 
the  States  and  the  national  government.  I  cannot 
discuss  this  subject  at  length.  It  is  apparent  from 
an  examination  of  the  Constitution,  that  the  States 
are  supreme  in  certain  things,  the  general  govern 
ment  is  supreme  in  certain  other  things,  and  finally 
that  there  are  in  the  Constitution  two  tests,  at  least, 
which  establish  the  supremacy  and  sovereignty  of 
the  nation  over  the  States.  One  of  these  tests  is  in 
that  provision  by  which  the  general  government 
guarantees  to  every  State  a  republican  form  of  gov 
ernment.  There  is  no  corresponding  guarantee  by 
the  States  to  the  Union.  The  States  have  not  un 
dertaken  to  guarantee  to  the  nation  a  republican 
form  of  government ;  showing  that  the  national  gov 
ernment  is  supreme,  and  that  it  is  assumed  to  be 
able  to  maintain  its  own  institutions  and  authority. 
There  is  also  another  provision,  requiring  every  offi 
cer  of  each  State  to  take  an  oath  to  support  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  and  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States  is  made  the  supreme  law 
of  the  land,  any  thing  in  any  State  constitution  or 
any  law  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  In  these 
two  particulars,  as  in  many  others,  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  is  supreme.  The  States  are 
sovereign  in  their  spheres,  but  they  are  not  supreme  ; 


312  RIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

and  the  power  of  the  general  government  is  defined 
in  the  Constitution  itself. 

I  could  not  but  be  amused  at  the  gentleman  from 
New  York  [Mr.  Fernando  Wood],  who  examined 
the  meaning  of  the  words  "  compact "  and  "  fede 
ral  "  for  the  purpose  of  giving  the  House  informa 
tion  as  to  what  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
means.  It  so  happens  that  neither  of  these  words 
is  used  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  therefore,  whatever  may  be  their  meaning,  they 
throw  no  light  on  the  Constitution  itself.  But,  in 
order  to  ascertain  what  the  powers  conferred  on  this 
government  are,  we  must  go  to  the  Constitution. 
Calling  it  a  compact  does  not  make  it  any  more  or 
less  strong  than  if  you  call  it  a  constitution  or  a 
league  or  an  agreement.  Thomas  Hobbes  has  said, 
"  Words  are  wise  men's  counters,  they  do  but  reckon 
with  them ;  but  they  are  the  money  of  fools." 

I  now  proceed  to  consider  the  condition  of  the 
rebellious  States  with  reference  to  the  general  gov 
ernment.  Gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  house 
assert  that  the  States  still  exist;  that  all  that  is 
necessary  is  that  officers  shall  be  elected  to  fill  the 
offices,  and  then  these  States  are  at  once  in  the 
Union. 

The  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Stevens] 
maintains,  as  I  understand,  that  these  States  are 
out  of  the  Union,  that  their  territory  is  alien  terri 
tory,  and  that  we  are  making  war  against  alien  ene 
mies.  I  do  not  admit  either  of  these  positions  to 
be  true.  I  feel  quite  sure  that  these  eleven  once- 
existing  States  are  no  longer  States  of  the  Union. 
The  evidence  on  which  I  rely  in  support  of  this  posi- 


RIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.  313 

tion  is  found,  first,  in  the  declaration  made  by  the 
authorities  of  those  States,  that  they  no  longer  exist 
as  States  of  the  American  Union.  Next,  we  find 
that  for  three  years  and  more  they  have  been  resist 
ing  the  authority  of  the  government,  and  have  been 
carrying  on  a  war  against  it.  It  is  absurd  to  say 
that  States  or  people  are  a  part  of  the  government 
under  the  Constitution,  and  entitled  to  constitutional 
rights  and  privileges,  when  they  have  been  thus 
carrying  on  war  against  the  government. 

Next  apply  the  tests  of  the  Constitution.  The 
Constitution  provides  that  no  State  shall  raise  ar 
mies.  These  eleven  States  —  if  they  are  States  in 
the  American  Union  —  have  been  for  three  years 
engaged  in  raising  armies.  The  Constitution  de 
clares  that  the  States  shall  not  enter  into  any  treaty, 
alliance,  or  confederation  with  each  other.  These 
eleven  States  are,  as  is  notorious,  in  alliance  and 
confederation  with  each  other  against  this  govern 
ment,  and  have  been  so  confederated  together  for 
three  years.  The  Constitution  requires  that  the 
officers  of  each  State  shall  take  an  oath  to  support 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  while  it  is 
notorious  that  every  officer  exercising  authority  or 
jurisdiction  has  taken  an  oath  absolving  himself,  as 
far  as  he  could  do  so  be  an  oath,  from  all  allegiance 
to  this  government.  Therefore,  applying  these  con 
stitutional  tests  to  the  eleven  once-existing  States, 
we  find  that  there  is  no  response  tending  to  show 
that  they  are  States  in  the  American  Union. 

Nor  do  I  admit  that  the  people  in  the  rebellious 
States  are  aliens.  They  are  not  of  any  other  coun 
try,  they  are  not  of  any  other  legal  jurisdiction,  but 


314  RIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

they  are  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Union. 
Three  years  ago,  as  all  admit,  they  were  a  portion 
of  the  Union  ;  and,  although  they  have  been  carrying 
on  a  war,  that  war  has  not  thus  far  been  successful, 
their  independence  has  not  been  acknowledged  by 
us,  nor  has  it  been  recognized  by  any  other  nation. 
They  therefore  are  not  aliens.  They  are,  to  be  sure, 
public  enemies ;  but  they  are  not  alien  enemies. 

Then  what  is  the  condition  of  the  people  occupy 
ing  the  territory  once  included  in  these  eleven 
States  ?  As  I  believe,  and  as  I  attempted  to  set 
forth  in  certain  resolutions  which  I  submitted  to 
the  House  a  few  weeks  ago,  these  States  as  political 
organizations  which  this  government  can  recognize, 
have  by  their  own  will  ceased  to  exist.  I  then 
submitted  the  views  which  I  entertain  upon  that 
point,  to  the  effect  that  the  existence  of  a  State  is  a 
fact  within  the  control  of  the  people  themselves,  and 
cannot  be  influenced  by  any  extraneous  power  what 
ever,  and  that  therefore  these  States,  by  the  will  of 
the  people  thereof,  have  ceased  to  exist  as  political 
organizations  forming  or  constituting  a  part  of  the 
American  Union. 

What,  then,  remains  ?  Unquestionably,  it  remains 
true,  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  has 
legal  jurisdiction  over  this  territory  and  over  the 
people  who  occupy  it ;  but,  admitting  that  fact,  it  is 
an  absurdity  to  say  that  these  States  still  exist,  and 
that  the  people  thereof  may,  without  our  consent, 
elect  officers  and  send  representatives  to  this  body, 
and  senators  to  the  other  branch  of  Congress.  I 
refer,  in  this  connection,  to  a  remark  quoted  in  the 
"  Federalist,"  from  Montesquieu :  "  Greece  was  un- 


EIGHTS  OF  THE  EEBEL  STATES.        315 

done  as  soon  as  the  King  of  Macedon  obtained  a 
seat  among  the  Amphictyons." 

Gentlemen  upon  the  other  side  of  the  house 
propose  that  our  enemies  may  come  into  this  hall 
and  into  that  of  the  other  branch  of  Congress,  and 
take  their  seats.  What  happened  to  Greece  when 
the  King  of  Macedon  obtained  a  seat  in  the  Am- 
phictyonic  Council  will  surely  happen  to  us  as  a 
nation  when  we  concede  any  portion  of  this  gov 
ernment  to  our  enemies.  Yet  that  is  the  proposi 
tion  of  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House, 
if  their  position  has  any  force  whatever. 

I  suppose  it  will  not  be  denied,  that  we  have  the 
right  to  fix  rules  and  regulations  for  the  admission 
of  new  States.  It  certainly  cannot  be  denied  on 
this  side  of  the  House.  It  would  be  a  monstrous 
proposition,  that  the  people  of  a  Territory  —  I  speak 
now  of  Territories  acknowledging  their  allegiance  to 
this  government,  as  Nevada  or  Nebraska  —  can 
frame  a  constitution  such  as  pleases  them,  and 
secure,  as  an  absolute  right,  their  admission  into 
the  Union  as  a  State,  without  any  judgment  being 
passed  upon  that  question  by  Congress.  The  fact 
that  no  State  was  ever  admitted  into  the  Union, 
except  by  a  vote  of  Congress,  implies  that,  for  any 
reason  that  may  be  satisfactory  to  Congress,  such 
admission  could  be  refused. 

If  then,  the  application  of  a  Territory  to  be 
admitted  into  the  Union  as  a  State  may  be  refused, 
it  may  be  refused  for  any  reason  which,  in  the  judg 
ment  of  Congress,  may  be  deemed  sufficient.  The 
reason  rests  in  the  mind  of  Congress.  Congress 
will  naturally  consider  the  constitution,  the  institu- 


316  BIGHTS   OF  THE   REBEL   STATES. 

tions,  of  the  proposed  State,  its  extent  of  territory, 
and  any  other  circumstances  which  may  properly 
come  within  their  view,  and  then  decide  whether  the 
Territory  shall  be  received  as  a  State  into  the  Union. 

If  this  be  true  in  reference  to  a  Territory,  and  if 
it  be  also  true,  as  I  believe  it  is,  that  these  States 
as  States  have  ceased  to  exist,  they  can  only  be 
restored  to  this  Union  as  States  upon  the  occurrence 
of  two  events.  The  people  of  the  proposed  State, 
a  majority  of  them,  as  is  required  by  this  bill,  must 
apply  for  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  State, 
having  first  declared  their  loyalty  to  the  Union  and 
to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  When  a 
State  shall  so  apply  for  admission,  with  a  proposed 
constitution  for  a  State  government  that  shall  con 
form  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  it 
will  then  be  competent  for  Congress  to  say  whether 
it  shall  be  admitted  or  not.  Congress  exercises 
this  discretion  according  to  its  best  judgment,  and 
from  its  decision  there  can  be  no  appeal. 

This  bill  fixes  three  unalterable  conditions  prece 
dent  to  such  application,  without  a  compliance  with 
which  no  one  of  these  once-existing  States  can 
re-appear  in  the  Union. 

It  is  asserted  on  the  other  side  of  the  House,  that 
we  have  no  right  to  make  such  conditions  prece 
dent  to  the  organization  of  a  State  government, 
there  being  a  provision  in  the  Constitution  that 
the  United  States  shall  guarantee  to  each  State 
a  republican  form  of  government;  and  State  gov 
ernments  having  existed  and  been  recognized  as 
republican  in  form  by  Congress,  in  which  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery  existed,  we  have  no  right  to 


RIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.  317 

change  our  opinion  as  to  what  a  republican  form  of 
government  is.  It  is  at  that  point  exactly  where 
we  differ.  I  say  that  the  question  as  to  what 
constitutes  a  republican  form  of  government  is 
under  the  Constitution  always  open  to  the  judg 
ment  of  Congress.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
Congress  can  appoint  a  committee  of  inspection  or 
scrutiny  in  reference  to  the  Constitution  of  Ken 
tucky,  for  example.  Kentucky  having  been  admit 
ted  to  the  Union,  the  question  for  the  time  being 
was  decided,  and  her  Constitution  and  form  of 
government  are  recognized  as  republican.  But 
suppose  a  controversy  should  arise  in  Kentucky,  as 
in  Rhode  Island  two  and  twenty  years  ago,  and  a 
party  by  a  majority  should  establish  another  govern 
ment,  frame  another  constitution,  and  exercise 
authority  under  that  constitution,  and  there  should 
be  a  conflict,  then  the  question  would  be  brought 
before  Congress  to  investigate  the  matter  whether 
either  or  both  were  republican  in  form.  Certainly 
not  whether  the  old  constitution  or  new  is  republi 
can  in  form  according  to  the  judgment  of  our  an 
cestors,  not  whether  it  is  republican  .according  to 
the  writings  of  any  commentator;  but  if,  in  the 
opinion  of  Congress,  it  should  appear  that  one  of 
these  is  republican  and  the  other  is  not,  then  Con 
gress  would  set  up  the  republican  government,  even 
though  the  old  government  should  be  destroyed 
thereby. 

While  I  do  not  claim  for  Congress  the  right  of 
scrutiny  of  the  governments  of  existing  States,  yet, 
if  the  question  is  forced  upon  Congress  in  such  a 
manner  that  it  cannot  be  avoided,  then  a  decision 


318  EIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

is  to  be  made.  From  that  decision  there  is  no 
appeal.  The  Supreme  Court,  in  the  Rhode-Island 
case,  held,  that,  when  Congress  decided  the  question 
of  the  character  of  the  State  government,  whether 
it  was  republican  in  form  or  not,  that  decision  could 
not  be  investigated,  could  not  be  examined,  could  not 
be  controlled  by  any  other  department  or  tribunal. 
We  mean  by  this  bill  to  give  notice  to  the  people 
occupying  the  territory  of  the  eleven  once-existing 
States,  that,  if  they  shall  frame  new  constitutions, 
they  must  come  here  with  governments  republican 
in  form,  according  to  our  ideas. 

Gentlemen  on  the  other  side  have  taunted  us  with 
the  charge  that  we  have  changed  our  policy  in 
reference  to  the  object  of  this  war ;  that  it  is  no 
longer  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  but  for 
the  emancipation  of  the  slave.  I  deny  this ;  but, 
if  the  policy  of  the  war  has  been  changed,  it  is  not 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  human  affairs  that 
similar  changes  have  taken  place.  I  remember 
that  it  is  the  undeviating  testimony  of  history,  that 
from  the  opening  of  the  colonial  controversy  in 
1764  to  the  month  of  September,  1774,  less  than 
eight  months  prior  to  the  massacre  of  Lexington, 
there  was  not  a  paper,  there  was  not  a  public 
man,  there  was  not  a  representative  assembly,  that 
did  not  declare  that  it  was  the  settled  purpose  of 
the  people  of  these  colonies  to  maintain  the  union 
with  Great  Britain.  Our  ancestors  denied  again 
and  again  the  charge  made  that  they  contemplated 
independence.  But  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776,  they 
declared  their  independence  of  the  mother  country. 
Events  had  changed  opinions,  and  opinions  had 


EIGHTS  OF  THE  EEBEL  STATES.        319 

changed  the  public  policy.  While  we  have  not 
changed  our  policy  in  regard  to  prosecuting  the 
war  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  the  Union,  we  do 
mean,  that,  when  it  is  restored,  it  shall  be  restored 
on  republican  principles,  and  that  there  shall  be  no 
new  State  admitted  into  the  Union  from  the  unoccu 
pied  western  territory,  or  from  Mexico,  or  by  the 
re-establishment  of  regular  governments  in  the 
eleven  rebellious  States,  that  is  not  republican  in 
form,  according  to  our  ideas.  The  "  Federalist " 
says : — 

"There  are  two  methods  of  curing  the  mischiefs  of 
faction :  the  one,  by  removing  its  causes ;  the  other,  by 
controlling  its  effects. 

"  There  are,  again,  two  methods  of  removing  the  causes 
of  faction :  the  one  by  destroying  the  liberty  which  is 
essential  to  its  existence  ;  the  other,  by  giving  to  every 
citizen  the  same  opinions,  the  same  passions,  and  the  same 
interests." 

We  purpose  to  cure  the  evil  of  this  faction  by 
removing  its  cause,  —  slavery;  and  to  give  to  every 
citizen  of  the  republic  "the  same  opinions,  the 
same  passions,  and  the  same  interests,"  in  refer 
ence  to  human  freedom. 

And  we  are  to  maintain  the  doctrine  on  this  con 
tinent,  I  trust,  that,  wherever  slavery  exists,  there 
republicanism  is  not ;  that,  wherever  slavery  ex 
ists,  there  a  republican  form  of  government,  under 
the  Constitution,  cannot  be.  Hence  we  give  notice 
in  this  bill  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  those  revolted 
districts,  that  they  may  form  State  governments,  and 
be  admitted  into  this  Union,  upon  certain  condi- 


320       RIGHTS  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

tions,  the  chief  of  which  is  that  involuntary  servitude 
shall  cease  to  exist. 

The  argument  upon  this  bill,  as  far  as  it  depends 
upon  me,  is  now  concluded ;  and  we  approach  the 
moment  when  the  judgment  of  this  House  is  to  be 
expressed.  The  discussion  in  which  we  have  been 
engaged  has  not  elicited  marked  attention  in  this 
hall,  nor  has  it  attracted  in  an  unusual  degree  the 
notice  of  the  country.  Yet  in  this  measure  lie  the 
germs  of  a  new  civilization  for  one-half  of  a  conti 
nent.  The  area  of  the  eleven  rebellious  States,  for 
whose  guidance  we  now  establish  a  fundamental 
law,  is  twice  as  great  as  the  area  of  the  thirteen 
colonies ;  and  it  is  nearly  equal  to  that  of  England, 
France,  Spain,  and  the  empire  of  Austria,  com 
bined. 

If  our  arms  shall  be  successful,  —  and  of  this  I 
cannot  doubt,  unless  Divine  Providence  shall  reverse 
the  order  of  things  for  purposes  inscrutable  to 
mortal  eyes, — this  vast  territory  is  by  this  great  act 
dedicated  to  freedom  for  ever.  With  freedom,  there 
will  come  a  new  civilization.  This  new  civilization 
will  be  marked  by  an  interpretation  and  preaching 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures  uninfluenced  by  the  lusts 
and  ambitions  and  designs  of  a  slaveholding  aris 
tocracy  ;  and  it  will  be  illustrated  by  a  system  of 
free  schools  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  all 
the  people,  whether  black  or  white.  Under  the 
new  civilization,  labor  will  be  honored  and  re 
warded  ;  the  immense  landed  estates  will  be  broken 
up ;  and  the  children  of  poverty  hitherto,  whether 
white  or  black,  will  be  endowed  by  the  law  and  by 
the  fruits  of  their  own  industry  with  a  portion  of 


RIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.  321 

the  soil ;  and  thus  they  will  become  the  supporters 
and  defenders  of  the  country,  contributing  to  its 
enrichment  and  power. 

There  is  one  feature  of  the  bill  which  does  not 
receive  my  approval,  and  to  which  I  assent  only  in 
deference  to  what  I  suppose  is  the  present  judg 
ment  of  this  House  and  of  the  country.  I  speak 
of  the  limitation  of  the  elective  franchise  to  white 
male  citizens.  The  right  of  suffrage  is  not  a  natu 
ral  right,  but  it  is  the  highest  among  political 
rights.  No  community  which  denies  the  right  of 
suffrage  to  any  considerable  number  of  its  adult 
male  inhabitants  can  ever  be  safe  from  intestine 
commotion  ;  for,  wherever  this  right  is  so  denied,  the 
people  cannot  be  safe  or  even  free  from  oppression. 
And,  even  if  a  community  in  which  the  right  of 
suffrage  is  thus  limited  should  be  free  from  actual 
oppression,  still  the  government  could  not  escape 
the  suspicions  and  charges  which  result  from  an 
unjust  distribution  of  political  power.  In  free 
countries,  the  rights  of  the  people  are  frequently 
acquired,  and  they  are  generally  preserved,  by  the 
ballot.  When  the  ballot  fails,  the  resort  is  to  the 
sword.  When  you  deny  the  ballot  to  one-third  or 
one-half  of  the  people  of  the  vast  territory  covered 
by  the  provisions  of  this  bill,  what  do  you  leave  for 
them,  or  offer  to  them,  but  a  resort  to  the  sword  as 
the  means  of  removing  or  redressing  the  grievances 
of  which  they  are  already  the  foredoomed  victims  ? 

I  had  indulged  the  hope,  until  recently,  that  this 
House  would  recognize  the  political  rights  of  the 
colored  race,  by  securing  the  elective  franchise  to 
certain  classes,  or  at  least  to  a  single  class  of  those 

21 


322  BIGHTS  OF  THE  REBEL   STATES. 

who  hereafter  should  enjoy  the  protection  of  the 
Constitution.  The  vote  upon  the  amendment  of 
the  Senate  to  the  bill  establishing  the  Territory 
of  Montana  dissipated  at  once,  and  for  the  present, 
this  hope.  The  country  will  speedily  revise  our 
proceedings  in  this  particular.  Mark  the  progress 
of  events  !  It  is  not  yet  two  years  since  you  were 
willing  to  contribute  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  by 
the  emancipation  of  the  negro.  I  do  not  now 
speak  of  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the  House. 
I  address  myself  to  the  friends  of  the  administra 
tion. 

But  now  the  President's  proclamation  of  emanci 
pation  is  accepted  with  signal  unanimity  by  the 
people  of  the  country.  It  has  already  received  the 
considerate  judgment  of  mankind ;  and  may  we  not 
also  reverently  believe  that  it  receives  the  constant 
favor  of  Almighty  God  ?  I  am  aware  that  gentle 
men  on  the  other  side  of  the  house  still  utter  their 
accustomed  denunciations  of  the  measure;  but 
their  words  are  like  the  wonderful  missile  of  the 
South-Sea  Islander,  which  cuts  the  air  fiercely,  and 
then  falls  harmlessly  at  the  feet  of  him  from  whose 
hand  the  weapon  was  hurled. 

The  people  accept  the  freedom  of  the  negro ;  hav 
ing  recognized  his  right  to  freedom,  they  bid  him  to 
do  service  for  the  country.  When  he  has  served 
the  country  in  the  field,  the  justice  of  the  nation 
will  guarantee  to  him  the  power  to  maintain  his 
rights  in  civil  life.  At  first,  you  remanded  the  fugi 
tive  negro  to  his  rebel  master.  Then,  and  reluc 
tantly,  you  accepted  the  services  of  the  negro  upon 
the  condition  that  he  should  dig  in  the  trenches,  and 


BIGHTS   OF  THE   REBEL   STATES.  323 

thus  relieve  the  white  soldier  of  the  most  arduous 
portion  of  his  labors.  Then,  if  he  could  still  be 
classed  as  a  laborer,  you  would  allow  him  to  per 
form  the  duty  of  a  soldier  in  garrison  and  in  pesti 
lential  regions  ;  but  at  last  you  have  recognized  his 
manhood  and  given  expression  to  a  public  sense  of 
justice  by  allowing  him  the  position,  pay,  and 
emoluments  of  a  soldier  of  the  republic. 

Thus  are  events  our  masters ;  and  thus  does  the 
country  hesitate,  even  in  the  presence  of  these 
events,  to  perform  those  acts  of  justice  which  are 
due  to  one  race,  and  necessary  for  the  salvation  of 
the  other.  When,  and  by  what  means,  and  for 
what  period  of  time,  do  you  expect  to  set  up  and 
maintain  loyal  governments  in  the  rebellious  dis 
tricts  of  the  Union,  unless  you  confer  the  elective 
franchise  upon  .the  negro  ?  The  military  power 
must  at  some  moment  not  remote  be  withdrawn. 
The  remnant  of  the  dominant  class  will  be  powerful 
for  a  generation.  There  is  a  large  number  of  poor 
whites,  unaccustomed  to  independent  thought  or  to 
independent  action.  The  colored  people  are  loyal, 
and  in  many  States  they  are  almost  the  only  people 
who  are  trustworthy  supporters  of  the  Union.  Will 
you  reject  them  ?  I  ask  whether  you  will  reject 
the  civil  and  political  power  of  the  colored  people 
in  South  Carolina,  for  example.  If  I  could  direct 
the  force  of  public  sentiment  and  the  policy  of  this 
government,  South  Carolina,  as  a  State  with  her 
ancient  name,  should  never  re-appear  in  this  Union. 
Georgia  deserves  a  like  fate.  When  the  Consti 
tution  was  formed,  she  united  herself  with  South 
Carolina,  and  forced  the  recognition  of  the  institu- 


324       EIGHTS  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

tion  of  slavery.  They  are  the  two  States  that  are 
responsible  for  the  continuance  of  this  institution. 
I  appeal  to  gentlemen  who  have  examined  our 
colonial  records,  for  the  proof  of  the  assertion  I 
make,  that  in  North  Carolina,  in  Virginia,  Mary 
land,  and  in  every  one  of  the  now  free  States  then 
existing,  declaration  after  declaration  was  made 
against  the  institution  of  slavery.  It  was  con 
demned  in  Maryland,  in  Virginia,  and  in  North 
Carolina.  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  breathed 
into  it  the  breath  of  life ;  and,  if  I  had  the  power, 
neither  of  those  States  should  re-appear  in  the 
Union.  Florida  does  not  deserve  a  name  in  this 
Union.  What  then  ?  Let  these  three  States  be  set 
apart  as  the  home  of  the  negro.  Invite  him  there, 
by  giving  to  him  local  political  power.  Give  him 
the  right  of  suffrage  in  those  States,  and  the  colored 
population,  as  rapidly  as  it  can  be  spared  from 
the  industrial  pursuits  of  the  North,  will  aggre 
gate  upon  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  and  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.  Give  them  local  self-government,  and 
let  them  defend  themselves  as  a  portion  of  this 
republic. 

[Here  the  hammer  fell.] 

Mr.  ASHLEY.  —  I  ask  that,  by  unanimous  consent, 
the  gentleman's  time  shall  be  extended  for  ten 
minutes. 

No  objection  was  made. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  do  not,  in  my  place  here,  ask 
that  in  Kentucky  or  Maryland,  or  in  any  one  of  the 
northern  loyal  States  where  a  negro  population 
exists,  the  right  of  suffrage  shall  be  given  to  them ; 
but  in  the  rebel  districts,  and  especially  in  South 


RIGHTS   OP  THE   REBEL   STATES.  325 

Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Florida,  I  would  provide  for 
the  right  of  suffrage  to  colored  persons.  They  have 
earned  it  by  their  services  in  the  field ;  and  there  is 
a  degree  of  injustice  in  asking  a  man  to  peril  his 
life  in  the  cause  of  the  country  and  in  defence  of 
institutions  in  the  creation  and  conduct  of  which 
he  has  no  voice  whatever.  There  is  an  injustice  in 
this.  It  cannot  stand  the  test  of  time  nor  the 
scrutiny  of  civilization. 

Sir,  great  misrepresentations  have  been  made, 
not  only  with  reference  to  the  negroes  in  this 
country,  but  with  reference  to  the  experiment  of 
emancipation  in  the  British  West  Indies.  I  will 
read  a  few  statistics,  which,  in  their  results,  show 
what  has  been  accomplished  by  the  black  population 
of  the  West  Indies  emancipated  by  the  British 
Government  less  than  thirty  years  ago.  I  venture 
to  anticipate  what  I  have  to  say  by  expressing  my 
belief,  that,  with  the  exception  of  Greece,  there  are 
no  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth  who  have  made 
more  progress  than  the  emancipated  slaves  in  some 
of  the  British  West  Indies.  What  have  they  done  ? 
Take,  for  example,  Barbadoes.  They  have  opened 
schools  ;  and,  out  of  a  population  of  140,000,  7,000 
children  are  in  the  schools,  and  they  have  over 
3,000  landholders.  In  Antigua,  with  a  population 
of  35,000,  they  have  more  than  10,000  children  in 
the  day  and  Sunday  schools,  and  5,000  landholders 
among  those  who  were  formerly  slaves.  In  Tobago 
there  are  2,500  landholders,  in  a  population  of 
15,000.  In  St.  Lucia,  with  25,000  inhabitants, 
there  are  more  than  2,000  land-owners.  And  even 
in  Jamaica,  which  is  an  exception  to  the  West- 


T.'ii  UKJIITB   OP  THW   HKHW1,  HTA  i  i 

India    i  i  ,,,-i  •    in    iii.     i..  .n<  i    of   (....  |..  ,  ,i      HJUCU 

umamtipation,  In  a  population  of  400,000  1 1..  •   luivu 
60,000  I'nuiholdnra.     ThoMo  rotimu*  aro  for  iHiiO. 

Ho,  llirn,  If  you  i«'M   ihiii   puoplo  who  •  .n..   from 
slavm'y  ami  li.n  i. ......  in   II  I.-,  n..    two  UmU  of 

primary  civili/itUou,  tho  miltivalion  of  Iho  noil  ....-I 

ii.'    .  .1...  ,i,...,    of  .  i. .  1. 1 1.  ..     duty    i.  .   .    matin  groat 
propTnnrt.     Hut  it,  i*  worth  win!     to  .,,,.  .,,'..,    that 

Hui  hmloOti  Itt  OHM  of    lln     i.i«i    I     pO|)UloilH 

it"    •  i..i.,       <)('  (lut  ouu  humlrotl  anil  H 

>' >    •   (»!'   i  .-.-I     Una    i,...,. i... i    ii....,    ,.,.!    arti 

<  i. n  i \atiou  ;    ..,.i  n..    ).....   of  t))H  c.ullivaUul  i  ,.,.i  U 

from  four  to  livn  I......IM  -i  .i..u  ,.  •  an  iu(ra, 

If  it  is  tshowu  iu  a  aiiigl"  ...  i  .....    tlutt  ......... 

luvtm  liiiva  Iwttu  tthla  to  tuka  uare  of  thoiu- 
and   made   jtrogTtuiH,   though   I  horn   may  ho 

ni:-l.u..  .  ;.   of    I. ului  .       .  I  ill    II..     -..,.      ...I.,...     Of 
lloiUDHWtmtOH  1 1  •-   •  •    •    .  |  •  .-  .  i  •      .....  I    I  I..     I  .  i  I ...  .    • 

aru  to  hu  aihihuUui  to  mitifortuuo  attd  tho  intluonoo 
of  uiriMim«(am^fl, 

Thu  ilttptiiiiltmt'.itni  of  tluiana,  Trinidad,  Harha- 
«lo«'H,  and  Antigua.,  ppovioui  to  tunancipation,  pro- 
diiuoii  187,000,000  poumU  of  nugar,  ami  in  lHfiU-67 
th«y  proiliuwd  annually  'Jl(i/),000,000,  showing  a  gain 
of  muu  ly  7H,000,000  pound*  a  year ;  and  thuir  im- 
\vrnl,  up  fnun  #8,8-10,000  to  #14,000,000  a  your. 

Mi\    ii....  i  •    thtt   lain   (ii»vomi)r-(Joiinriil   of  n.. 
Wintlwanl  i  i  ..,.1  •   .•!..!. .-.  (Vom  in-  own  knovNl*  i 
uiid   I»|IM  i    .h....    Hi. i    -n  nit   twUlt)  in    Uarhailooa, 
.»..'  i\   LI.,  i     pi  1 1 iii«    \\ ."  i-.  i"i  "" '  i:   'i'""    |p\ 

l\\.»       llllll.ll,  .1       ,111.1        Mill  I  \        fLl\.  "i    ,        'Illil        III, it        (III) 

I,,,,.!,,, ,    ,,i  ,  K  i,  i.ili.u.  i   .inn..      i  .  .  i.y  was  l,04»H 
|...mi.|:<  ,.|      .in     ...,, I    II.,     |.IIM|III  '    of  4  "  Ii    lalu»r«ir 


I    ,-.|,l     .      01        1)11        I    I    I    .    I  ,        I,     • 

,-,,,,, .  .  m  ,.,.  ,|,  ttlon  i    If680  pound  i     n    ,i  .,   i  ifc 

||,, il     !!,-      .  0    I     |.'   '     tU3  '     I'1    "I     ""'I'  '        1  '     '   '   ,       FM  410 
...I.,  I,,,;-,      .vlnl'      n.      I       ,   '.     il        .  ..        J,M  -'In'  •  'I     ft|       . 

•  ,|       /     I    .   I.   ,  In,;'  In    A  i.li  -ii  ,       :,.ll,     |     |,.,j,.il  ,!,.,,,     -,l 

;  >fOQO|  I)'-  /  •  on! '  ii'Mi-    '  'i",ii  i.«i    '  i     fcaplin     •  ••  i. 

.    fttiOR,  I-"   H'1    lUppOJ  i  "I    "  li ••''•"      •  I-  LI  'i  Mi 

,u,i|      .  'I'M  .ih.,n,J      n,    titlitiOttl  '       I    •  '   '  '       tliftl      "M, 

.   ),•,!.,,-   -,i  ii.'    Brttl  1 1  '.v.  i  ii,.ii. .   i, ,    daman 

i-l.i,il.  -IN,  i  /   -.I    Hi-    i.'    '<  Q  i 

I      .     I'     !'»     II. i       )-'  0^1       JUI   I-'  '  In     II"      )"•      •   i I 

.!..,,!  ,,,      II.  ,,      I),-       111.. 

ni  HI.  !,,,h',,,  ),•.  in  p.  ,,i,  m4 

,.,         ,,,U       I         ,    •    •  II,    ,1         II,'          '    |U      '          '.I         H, -I         )-'     Mil. 

jil     h<  '       tO     IK  :  ,  •      foul     ,,,,llr,n  'I   ||l    / 

V/lll       I'  .11  ..HI.       <. n       H, I   |       '   ',,,ln,'    1,1  'I   \H  ,1        I-'. 

•  ,,.,h  ,,,1.   -1  'I   I,  I),'       ',,.!.    ,      -,1      P. 

'i  i,. ,,  !.•,  .•      MI-  ',<,,  duj  .!•  n,'  i,,, 

I-,   profit     1"'     M,'  ii     .  i  /;h/,ih',n,    |., i      !),•  U'  ., 

,/,•   ,,1,    l.lml      li.  ,       !l,'     I,  Ilij  I     ',1     h. 

iJM'l         III'     II         '     ,.)„!'     ll    /  'I     I,'  U&ti  I,        I  .'.        /,'J 

[j   In jii  II  / 

<  l/«l'll'    •    . 


.  •!   I',    ,/,    li..     I',,  . 

I 

/     ./.  ./    . 

I  ,.     !,.,  .,1 ,   ...     ./      '  >! 

"  i/,    v,<    f<   >,\    I, 


328  EIGHTS   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

ing  a  speedy  overthrow  of  the  rebellion,  this  House  makes  the 
following  declaration  of  opinions  concerning  the  institution  of 
slavery  in  the  States  and  parts  of  States  engaged  in  the  .rebellion, 
and  embraced  in  the  proclamation  of  emancipation  issued  by  the 
President  on  the  first  day  of  January,  A.D.  1863 ;  and  also  con 
cerning  the  relations  now  subsisting  between  the  people  of  such 
States  and  parts  of  States  on  the  one  side,  and  the  American  Union 
on  the  other. 

"  It  is  therefore  declared  (as  the  opinion  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives),  that  the  institution  of  slavery  was  the  cause  of  the 
present  rebellion,  and  that  the  destruction  of  slavery  in  the  rebel 
lious  States  is  an  efficient  means  of  weakening  the  power  of  the 
rebels ;  that  the  President's  proclamation,  whereby  all  persons 
heretofore  held  as  slaves  in  such  States  and  parts  of  States  have 
been  declared  free,  has  had  the  effect  to  increase  the  power  of  the 
Union,  and  to  diminish  the  power  of  its  enemies ;  that  the  freedom 
of  such  persons  was  desirable  and  just  in  itself,  and  an  efficient 
means  by  which  the  government  was  to  be  maintained,  and  its 
authority  re-established  in  all  the  territory  and  over  all  the  people 
within  the  legal  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States ;  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  government  and  of  loyal  men  everywhere  to  do  what 
may  be  practicable  for  the  enforcement  of  the  proclamation,  in 
order  to  secure  in  fact,  as  well  as  by  the  forms  of  law,  the  extinction 
of  slavery  in  such  States  and  parts  of  States ;  and,  finally,  that  it 
is  the  paramount  duty  of  the  government  and  of  all  loyal  men  to 
labor  for  the  restoration  of  the  American  Union  upon  the  basis  of 
freedom. 

"  And  this  House  does  further  declare,  That  a  State  can  exist  or 
cease  to  exist  only  by  the  will  of  the  people  within  its  limits,  and 
that  it  cannot  be  created  or  destroyed  by  the  external  force  or 
opinion  of  other  States,  or  even  by  the  judgment  or  action  of  the 
nation  itself;  that  a  State,  when  created  by  the  will  of  its  people, 
can  become  a  member  of  the  American  Union  only  by  its  own  or 
ganized  action  and  the  concurrent  action  of  the  existing  national 
government;  that,  when  a  State  has  been  admitted  to  the  Union, 
no  vote,  resolution,  ordinance,  or  proceeding  on  its  part,  however 
formal  in  character  or  vigorously  sustained,  can  deprive  the  national 
government  of  the  legal  jurisdiction  and  sovereignty  over  the 
territory  and  people  of  such  State  which  existed  previous  to  the 
act  of  admission,  or  which  were  acquired  thereby  ;  that  the  effect 
of  the  so-called  acts,  resolutions,  and  ordinances  of  secession 
adopted  by  the  eleven  States  engaged  in  the  present  rebellion  is, 
and  can  only  be,  to  destroy  those  political  organizations  as  States, 


EIGHTS  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES.       329 

while  the  legal  and  constitutional  jurisdiction  and  authority  of 
the  national  government  over  the  people  and  territory  remain  un 
impaired;  that  these  several  communities  can  be  organized  into 
States  only  by  the  will  of  the  loyal  people,  expressed  freely  and  in 
the  absence  of  all  coercion ;  that  States  so  organized  can  become 
States  of  the  American  Union  only  when  they  shall  have  applied 
for  admission,  and  their  admission  shall  have  been  authorized  by 
the  existing  national  government ;  that,  when  a  people  have 
organized  a  State  upon  the  basis  of  allegiance  to  the  Union  and 
applied  for  admission,  the  character  of  the  institutions  of  such 
proposed  State  may  constitute  a  sufficient  justification  for  granting 
or  rejecting  such  application;  and,  inasmuch  as  experience  has 
shown  that  the  existence  of  human  slavery  is  incompatible  with  a 
republican  form  of  government  in  the  several  States  or  in  the 
United  States,  and  inconsistent  with  the  peace,  prosperity,  and 
unity  of  the  nation,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  people,  and,  of  all  men  in 
authority,  to  resist  the  admission  of  slave  States  wherever  organ 
ized  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  national  government." 


330 


THE    ENROLMENT    OF    TROOPS    AND    THE 
PROCLAMATION    OF   EMANCIPATION. 

DEBATE  IN  THE  HOUSE   OF  REPRESENTATIVES,    JUNE  26,  1864. 

MR.  BOUTWELL.  —  My  chief  purpose  in  de 
siring  to  obtain  the  floor  is  to  state  to  the 
House  the  reasons  by  which  I  have  been  controlled 
thus  far  in'  refusing  to  vote  for  the  proposition  to 
repeal  the  commutation  clause  of  the  Enrolment  Act. 
In  the  first  place,  I  have  given  the  vote  in  deference 
to  what  I  suppose  to  be  the  public  sentiment  of  the 
country.  I  understand  that  substantially  —  not  ex 
actly,  perhaps,  but  substantially — the  calls  for  troops 
by  the  President  have  been  met.  I  thought,  to  be 
sure,  from  the  observations  of  the  gentleman  from 
Ohio  [Mr.  Garfield],  made  this  morning,  that  he 
supposed  that  because  the  Representatives  on  this 
floor  from  Massachusetts  had  refused  to  support  the 
repeal  of  the  commutation  clause,  as  recommended 
by  the  Military  Committee,  they  were  prepared  to 
indorse  the  observation  which  that  gentleman  made 
on  the  previous  day,  when  this  subject  was  under 
discussion,  —  an  observation  which  I  thought  unfor 
tunate  ;  an  observation  which  I  thought  calculated 
to  alarm  the  country ;  an  observation  which  I  thought 
calculated  to  give  strength,  courage,  and  confidence 
to  its  enemies  ;  an  observation  which,  if  my  memory 
served  me,  to  the  very  last  words  and  the  very  last 


ENROLMENT   OF   TROOPS,   ETC.  331 

letter  used,  I  would  not  repeat  here  or  elsewhere, 
even  in  the  way  of  quotation.  I  thought,  also, 
when  he  was  referring  to  Massachusetts,  that  he 
supposed,  inasmuch  as  we  took  the  responsibility  of 
differing  from  the  judgment  of  the  Military  Com 
mittee,  that  therefore  we  were  prepared  to  abandon 
this  war,  to  sacrifice  the  country,  and  to  involve  it  in 
irretrievable  ruin.  If  it  was  his  intention  to  sug 
gest  to  the  House  and  the  country,  that  Massachu 
setts,  or  a  man  of  hers  who  has  a  right  to  speak  on 
her  behalf,  here  or  elsewhere,  had  come  to  any  such 
conclusion,  then  he  misunderstood,  if  he  did  not 
intentionally  misrepresent,  that  State. 

Mr.  GARFIELD.  —  Do  the  gentleman's  remarks  ap 
ply  to  me  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  To  no  other  man  upon  this 
floor. 

Mr.  GARFIELD.  —  I  wish  to  say  that  I  have  made 
no  reference  whatever  to  Massachusetts  ;  have  never 
in  my  life  intimated,  by  any  word  I  have  uttered, 
that  Massachusetts  was  derelict  of  duty,  for,  if  I  love 
any  State  in  the  Union  better  than  my  own,  it 
is  Massachusetts  ;  and  I  trust  the  gentleman  from 
Massachusetts  will  not  do  me  the  wrong  of  intimat 
ing  that  I  intentionally  or  unintentionally  said  any 
thing  upon  this  floor  disrespectful  to  that  State. 
What  I  said  in  my  closing  remarks  before  the  House, 
when  this  subject  was  last  up,  and  which  have  been 
referred  to  this  morning  and  criticised,  I  believe  to 
be  true.  The  same  thing  has  been  declared  in 
higher  places  than  mine,  and  we  have  got  to  meet 
it.  It  is  courageous  to  meet  it,  and  cowardly  not  to 
meet  it. 


332  ENROLMEN7!    OF   TROOPS   AND 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  judge  no  man,  but  I  was  able 
to  connect  the  observations  made  upon  one  occasion 
with  those  made  upon  another.  The  gentleman 
recollects  the  remark  made  the  previous  day,  which 
was  an  expression  of  his  opinion  of  the  effect  of  a 
certain  vote  given,  in  which  vote  the  delegation  from 
Massachusetts  participated  ;  and  I  recollect  that  to 
day  he  called  the  special  attention  of  this  House  and 
of  the  country  to  the  previous  history  of  Massachu 
setts,  and  to  her  Conscription  Act  of  1693.  I  may 
have  erred  in  the  inference  to  be  drawn  from  those 
remarks  ;  and,  if  I  have  so  erred,  I  have  done  injus 
tice  to  the  gentleman ;  if  not,  the  remark  I  made  is 
but  just. 

Now,  sir,  the  position  of  Massachusetts,  as  I  un 
derstand  it,  is  this :  she  does  not  desire  a  rigid  con 
scription  either  of  her  own  citizens  or  of  the  people 
of  the  country,  so  long  as  the  war  can  be  prosecuted 
vigorously  and  with  reasonable  hope  of  success  by 
other  means.  What  we  say,  and  what  we  present  to 
the  House  and  the  country,  is  the  great  fact,  that 
thus  far  we  have  substantially  complied  with  the 
requisitions  of  the  President  for  men  and  money. 
If  there  has  been  no  failure  under  such  circum 
stances  as  to  indicate,  as  a  consequence  of  that 
failure,  our  inability  to  prosecute  the  war,  then  we 
ought  not  to  inaugurate  a  policy  which  gives  offence 
even  to  one  man.  Not  merely  should  we  hesitate 
to  inaugurate  the  policy  proposed,  in  deference  to 
opinion  upon  this  side  of  the  House,  but  we  are 
bound  to  consider  the  sentiments  even  of  those  who 
differ  with  us  upon  matters  of  public  policy,  but 
who  are  in  favor  of  prosecuting  the  war.  When 


PROCLAMATION   OF   EMANCIPATION.  333 

the  country  is  no  longer  able  to  carry  on  the  war 
without  a  rigid  conscription,  we  shall  not  hesitate  to 
accept  the  necessity  as  the  means  of  restoring  the 
Union  and  preserving  the  national  life.  But,  at 
the  same  time,  I  say  here,  what  I  have  already  said 
to  many  of  my  constituents, —  and  it  is  a  declaration 
by  which  I  mean  to  be  bound  so  long  as  I  have 
a  voice  either  as  a  citizen  or  a  representative, — 
that  nothing  in  men  or  money  or  means  shall  be 
withheld  from  the  government :  all  shall  be  yielded 
according  to  the  necessity  existing. 

Sir,  if  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Garfield] 
had  read  the  whole  history  of  Massachusetts,  he 
would  have  known  that,  in  the  Indian  war  of  1675 
and  1676,  we  sacrificed  one-twentieth  of  our  inhabi 
tants,  and  that  every  twentieth  building  in  the  col 
onies  of  New  Plymouth  and  Massachusetts  was  laid 
in  ashes.  Be  it  ever  remembered  that  that  war  ended 
without  a  treaty  of  peace.  It  is  the  only  war  on 
this  continent  that  was  ever  brought  to  a  conclusion 
without  such  a  treaty.  The  children  of  the  men 
who  made  these  sacrifices  for  the  defence  of  their 
homes  will  make  equal  sacrifices  for  the  defence  of 
the  nationality  of  the  country,  looking  to  a  termi 
nation  of  this  war  when  there  shall  be  no  treaty 
of  peace.  When  I  say  there  shall  be  no  treaty  of 
peace,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  that  this  is  a 
war  of  extermination  either  of  the  blacks  or  whites. 
I  believe  that  only  one  thing  is  necessary  on  the  part 
of  the  Southern  people,  and  that  is  that  they  shall 
abandon  the  institution  of  slavery.  When  they  shall 
have  laid  down  their  arms  and  abandoned  that  in 
stitution,  which,  as  I  believe,  was  the  source  and  is 


334        ENROLMENT  OP  TROOPS  AND 

the  support  of  the  war,  then  we  shall  yield  to  them 
their  positions  in  the  Union,  accord  to  them  all 
their  local  and  State  rights,  and  maintain  their  posi 
tion  and  rights  in  the  Union  as  we  maintain  our 
own.  But,  sir,  until  this  war  is  ended,  there  can  be 
no  compromise,  no  arrangement,  no  treaty. 

I  am  not  disposed  to  despair  at  all  of  the  re 
public,  or  of  the  power  of  the  government  to 
maintain  itself.  The  gentleman  from  Kentucky 
[Mr.  Mallory]  said  this  morning  that  the  whole 
policy  of  the  country  was  changed  by  the  proclama 
tion  of  the  President ;  and  he  attributed  that  proc 
lamation  to  the  meeting  of  the  Governors  of  certain 
States  at  Altoona.  I  am  not  here  to  be  put  upon 
the  witness-stand  ;  but  it  so  happens  that  I  have  the 
means  of  knowing  that  the  proclamation  of  Septem 
ber,  1862,  was  entirely  independent  of,  and  ante 
cedent  to,  the  meeting  of  the  Governors  at  Altoona. 
The  meeting  of  the  Governors  had  no  connection 
with  the  proclamation.  The  gentleman  from  Ken 
tucky  should  remember,  that,  prior  to  the  issuing 
of  that  proclamation,  we  had  met  with  but  few  suc 
cesses,  and  that  we  had  endured  many,  many 
reverses.  Lee  had  battled  for  four  days  under  the 
fortifications  of  the  capital,  and  had  finally  crossed 
the  Potomac  into  Maryland.  It  was  not  until  the 
country  put  itself  on  the  side  of  justice  that  it  had 
a  right  to  expect  the  favor  of  Divine  Providence,  or 
any  of  those  successes  which  have  rendered  this  war 
glorious  in  the  cause-  of  freedom,  truth,  and  justice. 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  Will  the  gentleman  state  when 
that  convention  of  Governors  assembled  at  Al 
toona  ? 


PROCLAMATION    OF   EMANCIPATION.  335 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  think  it  assembled  at  Altoona 
previous  to  the  22d  of  September ;  but  I  assert,  as 
within  my  own  knowledge,  that  the  issuing  of  the 
proclamation  was  determined  upon  previous  to  the 
meeting  at  Altoona. 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  Can  the  gentleman  inform  me 
when  the  issuing  of  that  proclamation  was  deter 
mined  upon? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  cannot  go  far  in  this  matter. 
I  assert  distinctly  the  fact  which  is  within  my  own 
knowledge,  that  the  President,  previous  to  the  meet 
ing  of  the  Governors  at  Altoona,  had  decided,  in 
a  certain  contingency,  which  happened  upon  the 
Wednesday  preceding  the  22d  of  September,  to  issue 
the  proclamation ;  and  therefore  the  inference  I 
draw  is  in  contravention  of  the  declaration  of  the 
gentleman  from  Kentucky,  that  that  proclamation 
was  the  result  of  the  meeting  of  the  Governors  at 
Altoona. 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  Will  the  gentleman  tell  us  the 
contingency  on  the  happening  of  which  that  proc 
lamation  was  to  be  issued  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  said,  Mr.  Speaker,  when  I 
mentioned  this  fact,  that  I  was  not  to  be  put  upon 
the  stand  as  a  witness.  I  have  made  a  statement  as 
of  a  fact  within  my  own  knowledge,  and  history  will 
confirm  the  statement. 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  If  the  gentleman  from  Massa 
chusetts  does  not  wish  to  answer  the  question,  or  to 
state  the  fact,  I  will  not  insist. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  have  done  nothing  more  than 
this,  —  to  put  my  statement  of  a  fact,  which  I  assert 
to  be  within  my  own  knowledge,  against  the  decla- 


336         ENROLMENT  OF  TROOPS  AND 

ration  of  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky,  that  the 
proclamation  of  emancipation,  or  the  monitory  proc 
lamation  of  emancipation,  was  issued  in  consequence 
of  the  meeting  of  Governors  at  Altoona. 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  We  know  that  the  President 
himself  stated,  on  the  13th  of  that  month,  that  he 
had  no  idea  of  issuing  such  a  proclamation,  and  that 
he  argued  against  issuing  it.  I  want  to  know  from 
the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts  whether  it  was 
between  the  13th  and  22d,  and  if  so,  at  what  point 
between  these  two  periods  the  President  had  pre 
pared  the  proclamation,  and  had  determined  to  issue 
it  upon  a  certain  contingency.  I  would  also  like  to 
know  what  that  contingency  was. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  The  gentleman  from  Kentucky 
is  good  at  questioning,  but  I  have  to  keep  myself 
within  the  limits  which  I  stated. 

Mr.  DAWES.  —  Courtesy  is  an  exchangeable  com 
modity. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  trust  I  shall  lose  nothing  by 
my  courtesy. 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  Of  course  not.  I  decline  to  ask 
any  more  questions. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL. — The  gentleman  from  Kentucky 
has  made  some  observations  in  disparagement  of 
negro  troops.  I  have  entertained  the  opinion  in 
relation  to  this  whole  question  of  emancipating  the 
negroes,  and  putting  them  into  the  service  of  the 
government,  that  it  was  a  legitimate  means  of  dimin 
ishing  the  power  of  the  enemy  and  of  augmenting 
our  own.  I  have  never  thought  it  necessary  to  in 
quire  how  far  the  loss  of  a  negro  slave  diminished 
the  power  of  the  rebels  to  carry  on  this  war.  I  dare 


PROCLAMATION   OF   EMANCIPATION.  337 

say  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  has  been  called 
upon  seriously  to  contemplate  that  question.  I  have 
only  felt  that  in  some  degree,  I  cannot  say  how 
great,  it  diminished  the  power  of  the  rebels  to 
continue  the  contest.  Therefore  I  said,  dismissing 
entirely  the  question  of  justice  and  humanity,  if  you 
please,  that  it  is  properly  within  the  policy  of  the 
government  to  emancipate  the  slaves  as  a  means  of 
diminishing  the  power  of  the  rebels.  When  the 
question  arose  as  to  using  the  emancipated  negro  in 
the  service  of  the  country,  I  said  again,  it  is  not 
possible  that  a  negro,  who  has  contributed  to  the 
support  of  the  South,  should  be  unable  to  do  some 
thing  for  the  enlargement  of  the  powers  and  for 
the  augmentation  of  the  resources  of  this  govern 
ment. 

I  am  therefore  in  favor  of  his  going  into  the 
service  to  dig  trenches,  to  garrison  forts,  to  shoulder 
the  musket,  and  to  serve  the  country  in  the  ranks  as 
a  soldier,  and  to  do  more  whenever  and  wherever 
there  shall  be  an  opportunity,  and  he  shall  exhibit 
the  capacity,  for  doing  more. 

The  gentleman  from  Kentucky  made  some  obser 
vations  to  prove  that  the  negro  did  not  fight  well. 
There  are  many  specific  facts  to  the  contrary.  I 
happen  to  have  a  letter,  written  by  a  captain  who 
belongs  to  the  Twenty-second  Regiment,  United- 
States  colored  troops,  which  was  in  the  fight  before 
Petersburg,  on  the  15th  of  this  month.  He  says, 
"  My  second  sergeant  was  killed  in  the  first  charge, 
just  before  we  reached  the  rebel  works ;  and  alto 
gether  the  regiment  lost  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
three  killed  and  wounded  ;  "  showing  conclusively 

22 


338        ENROLMENT  OF  TROOPS  AND 

that  the  colored  troops  did  not  hesitate  to  put  them 
selves  in  exposed  positions,  and  to  maintain  them 
selves  in  those  positions. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  Will  the  gentleman  allow  me 
to  ask  him  one  question  before  he  passes  from  the 
subject  he  is  now  discussing  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Certainly.. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman 
whether  he  knows  when  the  proclamation  of  the 
President  was  finally  agreed  upon ;  not  when  it  was 
issued,  for  we  all  know  that ;  but  I  have  no  doubt 
the  gentleman  knows  when  it  was  decided  upon. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  The  gentleman  from  Ohio  as 
cribes  to  me  a  knowledge  which  I  have  never 
claimed. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  He  has  given  the  House  and 
the  country  to  understand  that  it  was  agreed  upon 
before  the  time  it  was  issued. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  have  not  given  the  House  or 
the  country  to  understand  that  it  was  agreed  upon 
at  any  time. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  When  the  gentleman  says  that 
it  was  agreed  upon  or  determined  upon  that  it  should 
be  issued  before  a  certain  time,  as  I  certainly  un 
derstood  him  to  say,  —  knows  it  was  determined 
upon,  or  that  the  President  desired  to  issue  it  prior 
to  the  Wednesday  before  the  22d  of  September,  when 
it  was  issued,  —  and  that  its  being  issued  depended 
upon  a  contingency  which  was  expected  to  happen, 
and  did  happen,  upon  that  Wednesday,  I  desire  him 
to  answer,  if  he  is  at  liberty  to  answer,  and,  if  he  is 
not,  to  say  so,  what  that  contingency  was. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  gave  notice  in  the  outset  that 


PROCLAMATION   OF   EMANCIPATION.  339 

I  did  not  mean  to  be  drawn  into  any  explanation 
beyond  the  statement  which  I  made. 

Mr.  PENDLETON. — I  desire  to  know,  then,  whether 
it  was  the  gentleman's  purpose,  when  he  made  the 
announcement  that  he  would  not  be  put  upon  the 
witness-stand,  to  simply  state  to  the  House  such 
parts  of  a  transaction,  which  he  says  was  within  his 
own  knowledge,  as  he  may  see  fit,  and  that  he  will 
not  be  induced  to  state  any  thing  beyond? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Exactly. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  The  gentleman  then  knows 
when  it  was  intended  to  be  issued,  but  declines  to 
state  it  to  the  House. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  I  hope,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  the  gen 
tleman  from  Massachusetts  who  holds  the  floor  [Mr. 
Boutwell]  will  consent  to  be  interrupted  long  enough 
to  permit  me  to  address  an  inquiry  to  the  gentleman 
from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Mallory]  who  has  just  ad 
dressed  the  House.  I  understood  that  gentleman  to 
assert,  and  to  reiterate  with  great  emphasis,  that  the 
emancipation  proclamation  was  issued  in  consequence 
of  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  the  President, 
by  the  meeting  of  the  Governors  at  Altoona,  in  the 
autumn  of  1862. 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  I  said  it  was  issued  in  conse 
quence  of  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  him  by 
these  Governors. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  Will  the  gentleman  state  at  what 
date  the  President's  proclamation  was  issued  ? 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  On  the  22d  of  September. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  Will  the  gentleman  state  further  at 
what  time  the  meeting  of  the  Governors  took  place 
at  Altoona  ? 


340         ENROLMENT  OP  TROOPS  AND 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  Some  days  before. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  Not  at  all,  sir  ;  that  meeting  was 
on  the  24th  of  September,  two  days  after  the  proc 
lamation  was  issued. 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  Oh,  no  ! 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  Yes,  sir,  I  am  correct.  I  had  a 
personal  recollection  of  the  date  ;  and  I  have  further 
certified  it  by  documentary  evidence,  which  I  sent 
for,  and  now  hold  in  my  hand. 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  It  makes  no  difference  what  was 
the  date  of  their  meeting :  they  were  here  in  Wash 
ington  days  before,  and  brought  such  a  pressure  to 
bear  upon  the  President  as  induced  him  to  issue 
such  a  proclamation. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  It  will  not  do  for  the  gentleman  to 
escape  in  that  way.  The  distinct  allegation  was, 
that  the  meeting  of  the  Governors  at  Altoona  applied 
the  pressure  which  forced  the  President  to  issue  the 
emancipation  proclamation. 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  These  governors  were  here,  as 
we  all  know,  before  the  meeting  at  Altoona.  The 
matter  was  talked  about  all  over  the  country.  The 
President  himself,  in  his  interview  with  the  border- 
State  men,  spoke  of  the  pressure  that  was  being 
brought  to  bear  upon  him  by  Greeley  and  these  other 
men,  and  begged  us,  for  God's  sake,  to  save  him 
from  that  pressure. 

Mr.  ELAINE.  —  I  think  the  gentleman  is  mistaken 
about  the  Governors  of  the  loyal  States  being  here 
before  they  went  to  Altoona.  I  know  that  at  that 
time  the  Governors  of  all  the  loyal  States  were 
doubly  pressed  with  duties  in  their  own  executive 
chambers.  I  know  that  Governor  Washburne,  of  my 


PROCLAMATION   OF   EMANCIPATION.  841 

own  State,  with  the  greatest  difficulty  was  able  to 
leave  to  attend  that  meeting  at  all.  I  recollect  par 
ticularly  this  circumstance,  because  the  Governor 
invited  me  to  accompany  him  on  the  excursion, 
which  invitation  I  was  obliged  to  decline.  And 
many  of  the  other  Governors  found  very  great  diffi 
culty  in  leaving  their  own  States  to  attend  that  con 
vention  ;  and  the  gentleman  may  be  sure  that  they 
did  not  come  on  to  Washington  hobnobbing  and  hold 
ing  consultations  here  for  a  week  in  advance.  They 
arrived  at  Altoona  after  the  President  had  issued 
his  proclamation  ;  and  it  is  simply  impossible,  there 
fore,  that  their  meeting  could  have  brought  to  bear 
upon  him  a  pressure  which  induced  him  to  issue 
it.  The  anachronism  into  which  my  friend  has 
been  led,  and  which  I  have  thus  pointed  out,  is  quite 
as  conclusive  in  the  premises  as  Mr.  Weller  hoped 
the  alibi  would  prove  in  the  celebrated  Pickwickian 
trial. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  One  more  question. 

Mr.  STEVENS.  —  The  gentleman  from  Massachu 
setts  says  he  will  not  be  cross-examined,  and  I  do 
not  see  any  advantage  to  be  gained  by  keeping  him 
longer  on  the  witness-stand. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  I  desire,  when  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  says  that  an  event  occurred  on 
Wednesday,  on  the  contingency  of  which  the  proc 
lamation  was  or  was  not  to  be  issued,  to  know  what 
that  contingency  was. 

Mr.  STEVENS.  —  Before  the  gentleman  from  Massa 
chusetts  answers  that,  I  want  to  make  a  motion. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  I  beg  that  the  gentleman  will 
wait  until  this  matter  is  settled. 


342        ENROLMENT  OF  TROOPS  AND 

Mr.  STEVENS.  —  But  the  gentleman  from  Massa 
chusetts  persists  in  saying  that  he  will  not  be  exam 
ined,  and  all  the  gentleman's  questions,  therefore, 
will  avail  nothing.  What  I  desire  to  propose  is, 
that  this  evening's  session  be  set  apart  for  the  dis 
cussion  of  this  subject.  There  are  several  gentle 
men,  I  believe,  on  that  side  of  the  House,  who  have 
speeches  they  desire  to  make.  I  know  of  some 
instances  in  which  superfetation  has  taken  place 
already  [laughter],  and  serious  consequences  may 
occur  if  opportunity  is  not  afforded  to  get  them 
off.  Nobody,  of  course,  will  be  obliged  to  come  to 
hear  them ;  and  I  therefore  propose  that  this  even 
ing  shall  be  set  apart  for  debate,  and  that  no  busi 
ness  shall  be  done. 

The  SPEAKER.  —  Is  there  objection  to  this  evening 
being  set  apart  for  debate  ? 

Mr.  ASHLEY.  —  I  object. 

[Mr.  CRESWELL  moved  to  dispense  with  the  even 
ing  session  for  this  evening. 

The  House  divided ;  and  there  were,  ayes  eighty- 
three,  noes  not  counted. 

So  the  motion  was  agreed  to.] 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  upon  what  event,  happening  on 
a  certain  Wednesday,  the  issuing  of  the  President's 
emancipation  message  was  contingent  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  The  wisdom  of  the  remark  with 
which  I  prefaced  my  first  statement  is  more  and 
more  manifest  as  I  proceed.  The  questions  put  to 
me  are  not  founded  upon  any  thing  I  have  said. 
The  gentleman's  question  states  that  the  event  was 
to  happen  on  Wednesday. 


PROCLAMATION   OF   EMANCIPATION.  343 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  — It  did  happen  on  Wednesday. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  have  already  stated  to  my 
friends  on  that  side  of  the  House  that  I  do  not  in 
tend  to  answer  that  question.  With  all  due  respect 
to  them,  I  do  not  intend  to  answer  that  question.  I 
stated  just  exactly  what  I  wanted  to  say,  for  the 
purpose  of  repelling,  so  far  as  I  could,  the  imputa 
tion  that  the  President  was  controlled  in  issuing  his 
emancipation  proclamation  by  any  assembly  of  men 
anywhere.  If  what  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky 
[Mr.  Mallory]  has  asserted  be  true,  of  which  I  have 
no  knowledge,  then  so  much  higher  is  my  opinion 
of  the  President's  wisdom,  that  he  abandoned  a 
policy  which  had  brought  nothing  but  disaster  upon 
the  country,  and  raised  himself  to  the  contemplation 
of  the  supreme  truth,  that  justice  to  the  enslaved 
was  involved  in  this  contest;  and  that  neither  he 
nor  the  country  could  hope  for  the  blessing  of  God 
until  they  saw  the  injustice  of  slavery,  and  deter 
mined  by  one  supreme  decree  to  strike  down  slavery 
and  slaveholders. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  Will  the  gentlemen  yield  to 
me? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Certainly. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  I  ask  the  gentleman  whether 
the  issuing  of  that  proclamation  did  not  depend 
upon  a  victory  being  obtained  by  the  Union  forces  ? 
I  will  be  satisfied  with  any  answer,  but  I  want  an 
answer. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL. — In  regard  to  these  questions,  I 
have  already  said  I  would  not  answer. 

The  SPEAKER.  —  Whenever  the  gentleman  de 
clines  to  yield,  the  Chair  will  protect  him  in  his 
right  to  the  floor. 


344         ENROLMENT  OF  TROOPS  AND 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  The  gentleman  yielded  to  me 
to  put  the  question,  and  he  declines  to  answer  it. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  made  the  declaration  in  the 
beginning,  that  I  would  not  be  put  upon  the  stand 
as  a  witness  in  reference  to  any  particular  statement 
I  made ;  that  I  intended  to  make  a  statement,  and 
leave  it  there  for  what.it  was  worth.  I  have  yielded 
to  the  gentleman  many  times,  —  an  excess  of  cour 
tesy  which  has  borne  heavily  upon  the  patience  of 
the  House ;  and  yet  he  still  persists  in  putting  the 
same  question  to  me. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  I  understood  the  gentleman  to 
gay  that  that  proclamation  did  not  depend  on  the 
meeting  of  any  set  of  men.  Do  I  understand  the 
gentleman  to  say  that  in  its  broadest  and  fullest 
extent  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Having  met  the  inquiries  and 
declarations  of  the  gentleman  from  Kentucky  in 
reference  to  the  Governors  at  Altoona,  with  the  con 
sent  of  the  Chair,  this  business  of  interruption  is  at 
an  end. 

Mr.  PENDLETON.  —  Certainly  I  will  not  persist  in 
my  interruptions,  if  not  agreeable  to  the  gentleman. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  To  gentlemen  on  that  side  of 
the  House,  and  especially  to  the  gentleman  from 
Kentucky,  and  those  who  have  been  engaged  with 
him  in  this  hopeless  struggle  to  perpetuate  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery,  I  submit  for  their  consideration, 
in  this  hour  of  their  grief,  that  we  have  not  only  had 
the  preliminary  proclamation  of  September,  1862, 
but  also  the  great  charter  of  liberty  upon  this  conti 
nent,  the  proclamation  of  1863  ;  and  whether  there 
be  peace  or  whether  there  be  war,  whether  there  be 


PROCLAMATION   OF   EMANCIPATION.  845 

victory  or  whether  there  be  defeat,  whether  there 
be  union  or  disunion,  that  decree  is  eternal  for  this 
continent ;  and  the  gentlemen  from  Kentucky  who 
still  hope  to  resuscitate  the  institution  of  slavery, 
whether  they  give  a  timid  and  uncertain  support  to 
patriots  struggling  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union, 
or  whether  they  attempt  to  withhold  from  the  gov 
ernment  the  physical  and  moral  power  of  the  slave 
element  upon  this  continent,  are  still  doomed  to 
disappointment,  and  to  disgrace,  permit  me  to  say, 
without  personal  reference  to  any  man.  It  will 
stand  upon  the  page  of  history  as  a  foul  blot,  that 
the  fairest  portion  of  the  North- American  continent, 
that  Kentucky,  blessed  with  a  soil  rich  and  a  climate 
inviting,  a  State  of  all  the  States  which  should  have 
buckled  on  the  armor,  and,  with  the  ancient  warlike 
energy  of  her  people,  rallied  to  the  support  of  the 
government  in  the  hour  of  its  trial,  —  that  she,  I 
say,  deliberately  bowed  the  knee  to  slavery,  and  ren 
dered  the  issue  of  the  contest  for  a  time  uncertain. 
Devastation  has  already  wasted  her  land,  and  she 
will  yet  be  an  object  of  pity  to  the  people  of  this 
continent  and  of  the  world.  And  I  now  offer  my 
sympathy  in  anticipation  of  the  inglorious  future 
which  awaits  that  State,  if  her  present  policy  be 
pursued,  tendered  with  some  hope  that  she  may  — 

Mr.  MALLORY.  —  We  scorn  and  despise  your  sym 
pathy.  [Loud  cries  of  "  Order !  "] 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  With  the  hope  that  she  may  yet 
redeem  her  honor. 

[Mr.  MALLORY  made  some  remark  amid  tumultu 
ous  cries  of  "  Order ! "] 

Mr.   BOUTWELL.  —  But  I   anathematize    her   no 


346  ENROLMENT   OF   TROOPS,   ETC. 

longer.  Kentucky  has  upon  this  floor  some  men 
true  to  liberty ;  and,  if  my  voice  could  pass  beyond 
these  walls  and  reach  those  other  sons  of  hers,  mis 
guided,  unfortunate,  but  not  yet  lost  to  the  Con 
stitution  and  the  Union,  I  would  invite  them,  in 
common  with  the  people  of  this  country,  to  abandon 
the  institution  of  slavery,  to  rally  to  the  support 
of  the  Union  and  the  Constitution,  and  thus  help  to 
make  this  continent  the  home  of  the  free,  where 
there  shall  be  neither  slave  nor  master  any  more. 


34T 


CHICAGO  CONVENTION   OF  1864. 

»       SPEECH  AT  FANEUIL  HALL,  SEPT.  6,  1864. 

T^ELLOW-  CITIZENS,  —  It  depends  very  much 
-*-  upon  what  we  believe  as  to  the  future  of  this 
country  and  the  rights  of  the  people,  whether  we 
rejoice  or  mourn  in  consequence  of  the  events  in 
Mobile  Bay  and  before  Atlanta.  If  it  was  true  on 
the  30th  day  of  last  month  that  the  people  of  this 
country  ought  to  take  immediate  efforts  for  the  ces 
sation  of  hostilities,  then,  gentlemen,  we  have  cause 
to  mourn  rather  than  to  rejoice.  I  understand  that 
there  were  people  in  this  country  who  before  the 
30th  of  August,  since  this  war  opened,  had  not,  as 
an  aggregate  body  of  men,  expressed  their  opinions 
in  reference  to  this  war,  who  then  at  Chicago  de 
clared  that  it  ought  to  cease.  I  noticed,  recently, 
two  observations  in  the  leading  opposition  news 
paper  of  this  city.  First,  a  fear  was  expressed 
that  hard  names  would  be  used  ;  and,  secondly, 
an  apprehension  was  manifested  that  this  meet 
ing  would  have  a  political  aspect  or  influence. 
I  thought  it  likely  enough  that  it  would  exert  a 
political  influence;  for  I  observed  in  other  news 
papers  that  it  was  called  to  express  congratula 
tions  over  the  events  which  have  taken  place  in 
Mobile  Bay  and  before  Atlanta,  and  I  thought 
that  those  events  had  had  a  political  effect.  I 
did  not  see  exactly  how  it  was  possible  that  men 


348  CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   1864. 

should  assemble  together  to  rejoice  over  events  hav 
ing  a  political  aspect,  without  the  meeting  and  the 
rejoicing  having  a  political  aspect  also.  Gentlemen, 
I  have  come  here  with  the  design,  that,  so  far  as  I 
am  concerned,  the  meeting  shall  have  a  political 
aspect.  These  times  are  too  serious  for  the  accept 
ance  of  any  suggestion  that  hard  names  are  not  to 
be  called,  if  hard  names  are  deserved.  The  ques 
tion  is,  not  whether  the  meeting  shall  have  a  politi 
cal  influence,  but  whether  it  is  really  necessary  to 
the  salvation  of  the  country  that  it  shall  have  a 
political  influence.  I  observed  certain  indications, 
while  the  person  who  last  occupied  the  platform  was 
speaking,  which  I  thought  were  a  slight  deviation 
from  that  much-talked-of  right  of  free  speech.  Now, 
then,  I  am  about  to  read  a  resolution  adopted  at  the 
Chicago  Convention.  I  shall  make  two  propositions 
in  reference  to  it.  I  shall  then  ask  whether  this 
assembly  assents  to  or  rejects  those  propositions. 
If  there  be  any  man  in  this  hall  who  denies  or 
doubts  the  propositions,  if  I  have  the  consent  of  the 
honored  chairman  of  this  meeting  to  ten  minutes  of 
time  in  which  I  can  engage  the  ear  of  the  assem 
bly,  I  surrender  it  to  that  man,  that  he  may  have 
an  opportunity  upon  this  platform  to  refute,  if  he 
can,  the  propositions  which  I  lay  down.  The 
second  resolution  of  the  Chicago  platform  is  in 
these  words :  — 

[At  this  point,  there  was  considerable  disturbance 
in  the  rear  of  the  hall,  created  by  one  individual, 
and  several  voices  cried  out,  "Free  speech  !  "  "  Out 
with  him !  "] 

He  will   be   more   useful  to   the   country   if  he 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   1864.  349 

remains  here.  If  he  goes  away,  there  is  no  chance 
for  his  conversion  to  the  truth :  if  he  remains  here, 
he  may  be  saved. 

"  While  the  lamp  holds  out  to  burn, 
The  vilest  sinner  may  return." 

I  hope  gentlemen  who  favor  free  speech  will 
listen  attentively  to  this  resolution :  — 

"Resolved,  That  this  convention  does  explicitly  declare 
as  the  sense  of  the  American  people,  that,  after  four 
years  of  failure  to  restore  the  Union  by  the  experiment  of 
war,  —  during  which,  under  pretence  of  military  necessity, 
or  war-power  higher  than  the  Constitution,  the  Constitu 
tion  has  been  disregarded  in  every  part,  and  public  liberty 
and  private  rights  alike  trodden  down,  and  the  material 
prosperity  of  the  country  essentially  impaired, — justice, 
humanity,  liberty,  and  the  public  welfare  demand  that 
immediate  efforts  be  made  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities 
with  a  view  to  an  ultimate  convention  of  all  the  States, 
or  other  peaceable  means,  to  the  end,  that,  at  the  earliest 
practicable  moment,  peace  may  be  restored  on  the  basis  of 
the  Federal  Union  of  the  States." 

[The  resolution  was  greeted  with  a  feeble  clap 
ping  of  hands,  a  slight  attempt  at  cheers  in  the 
rear  of  the  hall,  and  a  storm  of  hisses.] 

If  there  be  gentlemen  here  who  approve  this 
resolution,  I  hope  they  will  have  the  opportunity  to 
cheer.  [About  half  a  dozen  persons  commenced  to 
cheer,  but  abandoned  it  on  hearing  their  own 
voices.  The  speaker  proceeded:]  Gentlemen,  the 
two  propositions  which  I  lay  down  are  these ;  and, 
if  any  one  of  those  gentlemen  who  indulged  in  the 
luxury  of  a  cheer  just  now  chooses  to  come  upon 


350  CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   1864. 

• 

the  platform,  I  fulfil  my  pledge.  The  first  is,  that 
this  resolution,  as  far  as  known,  meets  the  approval 
of  the  rebels  in  arms  against  this  government.  The 
second  is,  that  this  resolution  meets  the  approval  of 
all  the  men  in  the  North  who  sympathize  with  the 
cause  of  the  rebellion,  and  desire  its  success.  If 
any  person  denies  the  truth  of  these  propositions, 
let  him,  with  the  leave  of  the  chair,  take  ten  minutes 
upon  this  platform.  [No  one  appeared.]  If  there 
is  nobody  to  refute  these  propositions,  I  take  it  for 
granted  that  they  meet  the  general  assent  of  this 
vast  assembly ;  and,  if  so,  is  this  the  time,  when  a 
great  convention  professing  to  represent  a  portion 
of  the  American  people  in  a  period  of  war,  not  hav 
ing  spoken  since  hostilities  commenced,  should  frame 
a  leading  resolution  so  as  to  meet  the  assent  and 
approval  of  the  enemies  of  the  republic  ?  And  is  not 
this  the  time,  when  such  things  are  done,  for  men 
who  have  a  faith  in  the  country,  and  a  belief  in  its 
right  to  exist,  to  declare  the  reasons  for  that  belief  ? 
I  propose  to  discuss  the  resolution.  First,  it  de 
mands  a  cessation  of  hostilities.  I  have  heard  the 
word  "  armistice  "  mentioned  to-night.  The  declara 
tion  of  that  resolution  is  not  for  an  armistice.  An 
armistice,  according  to  its  general  acceptation  and 
use,  implies  a  suspension  of  hostilities  upon  the 
expectation  and  condition  that  the  war  is  to  be  re 
sumed.  Not  in  this  resolution,  nor  in  the  whole 
series  of  resolutions  to  which  this  one  belongs,  is 
there  an  intimation,  that,  when  a  cessation  of  hos 
tilities  has  been  effected,  the  war  is  ever  to  be 
resumed ;  and,  if  the  war  is  not  to  be  resumed, 
then  a  cessation  of  hostilities  is  an  abandonment 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   1864.  351 

of  the  government.  It  is  treason.  I  declare  here 
that  the  proposition  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities  is 
moral  and  political  treason;  and,  further,  every 
man  who  knowingly  and  after  investigation,  and 
upon  his  judgment,  favors  a  cessation  of  hostilities, 
is  a  traitor.  The  issue,  gentlemen,  is  no  longer 
upon  the  tented  field.  The  soldiers  are  true  to 
the  flag ;  and  they  will  fight  on  and  march  on 
until  the  last  rebel  has  fallen  to  the  dust  or  laid 
down  his  arms.  The  soldiers  are  true ;  but  the 
cause  of  the  Union  is  in  peril  at  home,  where  secret 
organizations  are  mustering  their  forces  and  gather 
ing  in  material  for  which  there  can  be  no  possible 
use  except  to  revolutionize  this  country  through 
the  fearful  experience  of  civil  war.  Oh,  how  I  long 
for  a  more  complete  knowledge  of  the  English  lan 
guage,  that  I  may  select  a  word  or  a  phrase  which 
shall  fully  express  the  enormity  of  this  treason ! 

The  rebels  of  the  South  have  a  cause.  They 
believe  in  the  institution  of  slavery ;  they  have 
been  educated  under  its  influence.  They  thought  it 
in  peril.  They  made  war  with  a  fair  pretence  on 
their  part;  but  what  excuse,  what  palliation,  is 
there  for  those  men  in  the  North  who,  regardless  of 
liberty,  of  justice,  and  of  humanity,  ally  themselves, 
openly  some  and  secretly  others,  with  the  enemies 
of  the  republic?  Spare,  spare  your  anathemas, 
gentlemen.  Do  not  longer  employ  the  harsh  lan 
guage  which  you  can  command  in  denunciation  of 
Southern  traitors.  They  of  the  North  who  give  aid 
and  comfort  to  the  enemy  deserve  to  monopolize  in 
the  application  all  the  harsh  words  and  phrases  of 
the  English  language.  Cessation  of  hostilities :  what 


352  CHICAGO   CONTENTION   OF   1864. 

follows  ?  Dissolution  of  the  Union  inevitably.  Will 
not  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  associates  understand 
that  when  we  have  ceased  to  make  war,  when  our 
armies  become  demoralized,  public  sentiment  re 
laxed,  when  they  have  had  opportunity  to  gather  up 
the  materials  for  prosecuting  this  contest,  that  we 
cannot  renew  it  with  any  reasonable  hope  of  success. 
Therefore,  if  you  abandon  the  contest  now,  it  is 
separation :  that  is  what  is  meant,  and  nothing  else 
can  follow.  But  suppose  that  what  some  gentlemen 
profess  to  desire  could  be  accomplished,  —  a  recon 
struction  of  the  Union  by  diplomatic  relations  in 
augurated  between  this  government  and  Jefferson 
Davis,  and  suppose  the  South  should  return, — what 
follows  ?  When  you  have  permitted  Jefferson  Davis 
and  his  associates  to  come  back  and  take  their  places 
in  the  government  of  the  country,  do  you  not  see 
that  with  the  help  of  a  small  number  of  representa 
tives  from  the  North,  whose  services  they  are  sure 
to  command,  they  will  assume  the  war  debt  of  the 
South  ?  Gentlemen  of  the  North  even  say  that  the 
war  is  equally  unjust  on  our  part.  If  it  be  equally 
unjust  on  our  part,  why  should  not  the  government, 
when  restored,  assume  the  debt  of  the  South  as  well 
as  pay  that  incurred  by  the  North  ?  Therefore,  the 
first  step  to  your  final  destruction  is  the  assumption 
of  the  war  debt  of  the  South.  When  you  have  as 
sumed  that  debt,  and  taken  the  obligation  to  pay  it, 
these  men  of  the  South  will  treat  the  obligation 
lightly,  and,  upon  the  first  pretext,  they  will  renew 
secession  and  march  out  of  the  Union ;  and  you, 
with  your  embarrassed  finances,  will  find  yourselves 
unable  to  institute  military  proceedings  for  their 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   1864.  353 

subjugation.  Therefore  I  say,  that,  by  the  plan  of 
reconstruction  which  some  men  desire,  you  render 
secession  certain,  bankruptcy  throughout  the  North 
certain.  The  repudiation  of  the  public  debt  is  not  a 
matter  of  expectation  or  fear,  it  is  a  matter  of  cer 
tainty,  if  you  assent  to  any  reconstruction  of  this 
Union  through  the  instrumentality  of  Jefferson 
Davis  and  his  associates.  You  must  either  drive 
them  into  exile  or  exterminate  them.  You  must 
break  down  the  military  power  of  the  rebellion,  ex 
terminate  or  exile  the  leaders,  and  bring  up  men  at 
the  South  who  are  in  favor  of  the  Union,  and  who 
are  opposed  to  the  assumption  of  the  rebel  war  debt. 
There  is  no  other  way  of  security  to  yourselves.  Are 
you  prepared  to  cease  hostilities,  with  the  expectation 
of  negotiations  with  Jefferson  Davis  for  the  dissolu 
tion  of  the  Union  or  for  its  restoration  ?  Either 
course  is  alike  fatal  to  you ;  for  the  war  must  go  on 
until  peace  is  conquered.  The  friends  of  immediate 
peace  offer  you  as  negotiators  Franklin  Pierce  and 
A.  H.  Stephens;  one  of  the  Seymours,  either  of 
Connecticut  or  New  York ;  Wise,  of  Virginia ;  Yal- 
landigham,  of  Ohio  ;  and  Sould,  of  Louisiana.  The 
only  negotiators,  gentlemen,  to  be  trusted,  as  long 
as  the  war  continues  or  there  is  a  rebel  in  arms,  — 
the  only  negotiators  are  Grant  upon  one  line,  and 
Sherman  upon  the  other. 

What  further  does  the  cessation  of  hostilities 
mean  ?  It  means  that  the  blockade  is  to  be  removed, 
and  the  South  to  be  allowed  to  furnish  itself  with 
material  and  munitions  of  war.  What  does  it  mean 
on  the  land?  What  does  it  mean  on  the  sea? 
That  you  are  to  furl  your  flag  at  Fortress  Monroe 

23 


354  CHICAGO*  CONVENTION   OF   1864. 

on  the  Petersburg  line ;  that  you  are  to  remove 
your  gunboats  from  the  Mississippi  River;  that  you 
are  to  abandon  Fort  Jackson  and  Fort  St.  Philip  at 
its  mouth ;  that  you  are  to  undo  the  work  of  the 
gallant  Farragut  in  Mobile  Bay ;  and  so  along  the 
coast  and  upon  the  line  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  west 
ern  bank  of  the  Mississippi  River.  You,  people 
of  the  North,  who  have  been  victorious,  upon  the 
whole,  through  three  years  of  war,  —  you  are  to 
disgrace  your  ancestry,  you  are  to  render  your 
selves  infamous  in  all  future  time,  by  furling  your 
flag,  and  submitting  anew  to  rebel  authority  upon 
this  continent.  Are  you  prepared  for  it?  I  ask 
these  men  here  who  cheered  the  resolution  adopted 
at  Chicago,  whether  they,  men  of  Massachusetts, 
and  in  Faneuil  Hall,  will  say,  one  of  them,  with  his 
face  to  the  portraits  of  the  patriots  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  that  he  asks  for  peace  through  any  craven  spirit 
that  is  in  him?  Is  there  a  man  among  them  all, 
from  whatsoever  quarter  of  this  city,  renowned  in 
history,  —  is  there  a  man  of  them  all  who  will  stand 
here  and  say  he  is  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities  ?  If 
so,  let  him  speak,  and  let  him,  if  he  dare,  come  upon 
this  platform  and  face  his  patriotic  fellow-citizens. 
[A  call  was  made  for  cheers  for  McClellan  in  the 
rear  of  the  hall,  but  nobody  seemed  disposed  to 
respond.  The  speaker  continued :]  I  am  willing 
a  cheer  should  be  given  for  any  man  who  has  been 
in  the  service  of  his  country,  however  little  he 
may  have  done.  Is  there  a  man  in  Faneuil  Hall 
for  peace  ?  [Voices  :  "  No  !  "]  I  intended,  as  far 
as  was  in  my  power,  to  give  to  this  meeting  a 


CHICAGO   CONVENTION   OF   1864.  355 

political  aspect  in  favor  of  the  country  and  against 
traitors.  If  there  be  no  peace  men  in  this  assem 
bly,  then  that  object,  as  far  as  we  are  concerned,  is 
accomplished. 


356 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

EULOGY    DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE     CITY    COUNCIL    AND     CITIZENS 
OF  LOWELL,   AT   HUNTINGTON   HALL,   APRIL  19,  1865. 

THE  nation  is  bowed  down  to-day  under  the 
weight  of  a  solemn  and  appalling  sorrow,  such 
as  never  before  rested  upon  a  great  people.  It  is 
not  the  presence  of  death  merely:  with  that  we 
have  become  familiar.  It  is  not  the  loss  of  a  leader 
only  that  we  mourn,  nor  of  a  statesman  who  had 
exhibited  wisdom  in  great  trials,  in  vast  enterprises 
of  war,  and  in  delicate  negotiations  for  the  preser 
vation  of  peace  with  foreign  countries;  but  of  a 
twice-chosen  and  twice-ordained  ruler,  in  whom 
these  great  qualities  were  found,  and  to  which  were 
added  the  personal  courage  of  the  soldier  and  the 
moral  heroism  of  the  Christian. 

Judged  by  this  generation  in  other  lands,  and  by 
other  generations  in  future  times,  Abraham  Lincoln 
will  be  esteemed  as  the  wisest  of  rulers  and  the 
most  fortunate  of  men.  To  him  and  to  his  fame, 
the  manner  of  his  death  is  nothing;  to  the  country 
and  to  the  wtiole  civilized  family  of  man,  it  is  the 
most  appalling  of  tragical  events.  The  rising  sun 
of  the  day  following  that  night  of  unexampled 
crime  revealed  to  us  the  nation's  loss  ;  but,  stunned 
by  the  shock,  the  people  were  unable  to  comprehend 
the  magnitude  of  the  calamity.  As  the  last  rays  of 
the  setting  sun  glided  into  the  calm  twilight  of  eve 
ning,  the  continent  was  stilled  into  silence  by  its 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  357 

horror  of  the  crime,  and  its  sense  of  the  greatness 
of  the  loss  sustained. 

If  we  believe  reverently  that  God  guided  his 
chosen  people  in  ancient  times,  that  he  was  with 
our  fathers  in  their  struggle  for  independence,  we 
are  likely  also  to  believe,  that,  in  the  events  transpir 
ing  in  this  country,  the  Ruler  of  all  the  earth  makes 
his  ways  known  to  men  in  an  unusual  manner,  and 
to  an  unusual  extent.  If  God  rules,  then  are  not  all 
men,  even  in  their  imperfections  and  sins,  in  some 
mysterious  way  and  under  peculiar  circumstances 
the  doers  of  his  will  ?  To  the  human  eye,  Abraham 
Lincoln  seems  to  have  been  specially  designated  by 
Divine  Providence  for  the  performance  of  a  great 
work.  His  origin  was  humble,  his  means  of  educa 
tion  stinted.  He  was  without  wealth,  and  he  did 
not  enjoy  the  support  of  influential  friends.  Much 
the  larger  part  of  his  life  was  spent  in  private  pur 
suits,  and  he  never  exhibited  even  the  common  hu 
man  desire  for  public  employment,  leadership,  and 
fame.  His  ambition  concerning  the  great  office  that 
he  held  was  fully  satisfied ;  and  the  triumph  of  his 
moderate  and  reasonable  expectations  was  not  even 
marred  by  the  untimely  and  bloody  hand  of  the 
assassin.  During  the  canvass  of  1864,  and  with  the 
modesty  of  a  child,  he  said,  "  I  cannot  say  that  I 
wish  to  perform  the  duties  of  President  for  four 
years  more ;  but  I  should  be  gratified  by  the  ap 
proval  of  the  people  of  what  I  have  done."  This 
he  received  ;  and,  however  precious  it  may  have  been 
to  him,  it  is  a  more  precious  memory  to  the  people 
themselves. 

His  public  life  was  embraced  in  the  period  of 


358  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

about  six  years.  This  statement  does  not  include 
his  brief  service  in  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  nor  his  service  as  a  subordinate  officer  in 
one  of  the  frontier  Indian  wars,  nor  his  single  term 
of  service  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  nearly  twenty  years  ago.  In  none  of 
these  places  did  he  attract  the  attention  of  the 
country,  nor  did  the  experience  acquired  fit  him 
specially  for  the  great  duties  to  which  he  was  called 
finally.  He  was  nearly  fifty  years  of  age  when  he 
entered  upon  the  contest,  henceforth  historical,  for 
a  seat  in  the  Senate  from  the  State  of  Illinois.  This 
was  the  commencement  of  his  public  life,  and  from 
that  time  forward  he  gained  and  grew  in  the  estima 
tion  of  his  countrymen.  At  the  moment  of  his 
death,  he  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  all  loyal  men, 
including  those  even  who  did  not  openly  give  him 
their  support;  and  there  were  many,  possibly  in 
them  it  was  a  sin,  who  came  at  last  to  regard  him 
as  a*  divinely  appointed  leader  of  the  people.  The 
speeches  which  he  delivered  in  tliat  contest  are 
faithful  exponents  of  his  character,  his  principles, 
and  his  capacity.  His  statements  of  opinion  are 
clear  and  unequivocal ;  his  reasoning  was  logical 
and  harmonious ;  and  his  principles,  as  then  ex 
pressed,  were  consonant  with  the  declaration  subse 
quently  made,  "  that  each  man  has  the  right  by 
nature  to  be  the  equal  politically  of  any  other  man." 
He  was  then,  as  ever,  chary  of  predictions  concern 
ing  the  future;  but  it  was  in  his  opening  speech 
that  he  declared  his  conviction,  which  was  in  truth 
a  prophecy,  that  this  nation  could  not  remain  per 
manently  half  slave  and  half  free. 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  359 

In  that  long  and  arduous  contest  with  one  of  the 
foremost  men  of  the  country,  Mr.  Lincoln  made  no 
remark  which  he  was  unable  to  defend,  nor  could 
he,  by  any  force  of  argument,  be  driven  from  a  posi 
tion  that  he  had  taken.  '  It  was  then  that  those  who 
heard  or  read  the  debate  observed  the  richness  of 
his  nature  in  mirth  and  wit  which  charmed  his 
friends  without  wounding  his  opponents,  and  which 
he  used  with  wonderful  sagacity  in  illustrating  his 
own  arguments,  or  in  weakening,  or  even  at  times 
in  overthrowing,  the  arguments  of  his  antagonist. 
And  yet  it  cannot  be  doubted,  that  for  many  years, 
if  not  from  his  very  youth,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  mel 
ancholy  man.  He  seemed"  to  bear  about  with  him 
the  weight  of  coming  cares,  and  to  sit  in  gloom  as 
though  his  path  of  life  was  darkened  by  an  unwel 
come  shadow.  His  fondness  for  story  and  love  for 
mirth  were  the  compensation  which  nature  gave. 

In  the  midst  of  overburdening  cares,  these  char 
acteristics  were  a  daily  relief;  and  yet  it  is  but  just 
to  say  that  he  often  used  an  appropriate  story  as  a 
means  of  foiling  a  too  inquisitive  visitor,  or  of 
changing  or  ending  a  conversation  which  he  did  not 
desire  to  pursue. 

During  the  first  French  revolution,  when  the 
streets  of  Paris  were  stained  with  human  blood, 
the  inhabitants,  women  and  men,  flocked  to  places 
of  amusement.  To  the  mass  of  mankind,  and  es 
pecially  to  the  inexperienced,  this  conduct  appears 
frivolous,  or  as  the  exhibition  of  a  criminal  indiffer 
ence  to  the  miseries  of  individuals  and  the  calami 
ties  of  the  public.  But  such  are  the  horrors  of  war, 
the  pressure  of  responsibility,  that  men  often  seek 


360  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

refuge  and  relief  in  amusements,  from  which  in 
ordinary  times  they  would  turn  aside. 

In  Mr.  Lincoln's  speeches  of  1858  there  are  pas 
sages  which  suggest  to  the  mind  the  classic  models 
of  ancient  days,  although  they  do  not  in  any  proper 
sense  rise  to  an  equality  with  them.  His  style  of 
writing  was  as  simple  as  were  his  own  habits  and 
manners  ;  and  no  person  ever  excelled  him  in  clear 
ness  of  expression.  Hence  he  was  understood  and 
appreciated  by  all  classes.  The  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation,  his  address  at  the  dedication  of  the 
cemetery  at  Gettysburg,  and  his  touching  letter  to 
the  widowed  mother  who  had  given  five  sons  to  the 
country,  are  memorable  as  evidences  of  his  intellec 
tual  and  moral  greatness. 

His  speeches  of  1858  are  marked  for  the  precision 
with  which  he  stated  his  own  positions,  and  for  the 
firmness  exhibited  whenever  his  opponent  endeav 
ored  to  worry  him  from  his  chosen  ground,  or,  by 
artifice  or  argument  or  persuasion,  to  induce  him 
to  advance  a  step  beyond. 

His  administration,  as  far  as  he  himself  was  con 
cerned,  was  inaugurated  upon  the  doctrines  and 
principles  of  the  great  debate.  He  recognized  the 
obligation  to  return  fugitives  from  slavery,  and  it 
was  no  part  of  his  purpose  to  interfere  with  slavery 
in  the  States  where  it  existed.  It  must  remain  for 
the  historian  and  the  biographer,  who  may  have  ac 
cess  to  private  and  personal  sources  of  knowledge, 
to  inform  the  country  and  the  world  how  far  Mr. 
Lincoln,  when  he  entered  upon  his  duties  as  Presi 
dent,  comprehended  the  magnitude  of  the  struggle 
in  which  the  nation  was  about  to  engage. 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  361 

The  circumstance  that  his  first  call  for  volunteers 
was  for  seventy-five  thousand  men  only  is  not  valu 
able  as  evidence  one  way  or  the  other.  The  number 
was  quite  equal  to  our  supply  of  arms  and  materials 
of  war,  and  altogether  too  vast  for  the  experience 
of  the  men  then  at  the  head  of  military  affairs. 
The  number  was  sufficient  to  show  his  purpose,  — 
the  purpose  to  which  he  adhered  through  all  the  tri 
als  and  vicissitudes  of  this  eventful  contest.  His 
purpose  was  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  both 
as  a  civil  organization  and  as  an  armed  military 
force,  and  the  re-establishment  of  the  authority  of 
the  United  States  over  the  territory  of  the  Union. 
There  yet  remain,  in  the  minds  of  men  who  were 
acquainted  with  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  spring  and  sum 
mer  of  1861,  the  recollection  of  expressions  made 
by  him  which  indicate  that  there  were  then  vague 
thoughts  in  his  mind  that  it  might  be  his  lot  under 
Providence  to  bring  the  slaves  of  the  country  out  of 
their  bondage.  But,  however  this  may  have  been, 
he  never  deviated  from  his  purpose  to  suppress  the 
rebellion  ;  and  he  conscientiously  applied  the  means 
at  his  command  to  the  attainment  of  that  end. 
Thus,  step  by  step,  he  advanced,  until  in  his  own 
judgment,  in  the  judgment  of  the  country,  and  of 
the  best  portion  of  mankind  in  other  civilized  na 
tions,  the  emancipation  of -the  slaves  was  a  neces 
sary  means  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  war. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  insensible  to  the  justice  of 
emancipation ;  he  saw  its  wisdom  as  a  measure 
of  public  policy :  but  he  delayed  the  proclamation 
until  he  was  fully  convinced  that  it  offered  the 
only  chance  of  averting  a  foreign  war,  suppress- 


362  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

ing  the  rebellion,  and  restoring  the  Union  of  the 
States. 

In  the  great  struggle  of  1862,  Mr.  Lincoln  exhib 
ited  a  twofold  character.  He  was  personally  the 
enemy  of  slavery,  and  he  ardently  desired  its  aboli 
tion  ;  but  he  also  regarded  his  oath  of  office,  and 
steadily  refused  to  recognize  the  existence  of  any 
right  to  proclaim  emancipation  while  other  means 
of  saving  the  republic  remained.  He  sought  the 
path  of  duty,  and  he  walked  fearlessly  in  it.  Until 
he  was  satisfied  of  the  necessity  of  emancipation, 
no  earthly  power  could  have  led  him  to  issue  the 
proclamation ;  and,  after  its  issue,  no  earthly  power 
could  have  induced  him  to  retract  or  to  qualify  it. 
When  an  effort  was  made  to  persuade  him  to  qualify 
the  proclamation,  he  said,  in  reference  to  the  blacks, 
"  My  word  is  out  to  these  people,  and  I  can't  take 
it  back." 

It  has  been  common,  in  representative  govern 
ments,  for  men  to  be  advanced  to  great  positions 
without  any  sufficient  evidence  existing  of  their  abil 
ity  to  perform  the  corresponding  duties,  and  it  has 
often  happened  that  the  occupant  has  not  been  ele 
vated,  while  the  office  has  been  sadly  degraded.  It 
was  observed  by  those  who  visited  Mr.  Lincoln  on 
the  day .  following  his  nomination  at  Chicago  in 
June,  1860,  that  he  would  prove,  in  the  event  of 
his  election,  either  a  great  success  or  a  great  fail 
ure. 

This  prediction  was  based  upon  the  single  fact  that 
he  was  different  from  ordinary  men,  and  it  did  not 
contain,  as  an  element  of  the  opinion,  any  knowl 
edge  of  his  peculiar  characteristics.  History  will 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  363 

accept  the  first  branch  of  the  alternative  opinion, 
and  pronounce  his  administration  a  great  success. 
To  this  success  Mr.  Lincoln  most  largely  contrib 
uted,  and  this  in  spite  of  peculiarities  which  ap 
peared  to  amount  to  defects  in  a  great  ruler  in 
troublous  times. 

Never  were  words  uttered  which  contained  less 
truth  than  those  which  fell  from  the  lips  of  the 
assassin, —  "Sic  semper  tyrannis"  —  as  he  passed,  in 
the  presence  of  an  excited  and  bewildered  crowd, 
from  the  spot  where  he  had  committed  the  foulest  of 
murders  to  the  stage  of  the  theatre  from  whence 
he  made  his  escape. 

Mr.  Lincoln  exercised  power  with  positive  reluc 
tance  and  unfeigned  distaste.  He  shrank  from  the 
exhibition  of  any  authority  that  was  oppressive, 
harsh,  or  even  disagreeable,  to  a  human  being.  He 
passed  an  entire  night  in  anxious  thought  and 
prayerful  deliberation,  before  he  could  sanction  the 
execution  of  Gordon,  the  slave-dealer,  although  he  • 
had  been  tried,  found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to  death. 
There  is  but  little  doubt,  such  was  the  kindness  of 
Mr.  Lincoln's  nature,  that  he  desired  to  close  the 
war,  and  restore  the  Union,  without  exacting  the 
forfeit  of  a  single  life  as  a  punishment  for  the  great 
crime  of  which  the  leaders  in  this  rebellion  are 
guilty. 

Could  this  liberal  policy  have  been  carried  out, 
it  would  have  been  the  theme  of  perpetual  eulogy, 
and  its  author  would  have  received  the  acclamation 
of  all  races  and  classes  of  men. 

Mr.  Lincoln  had  not  in  his  nature,  or  in  the  hab 
its  of  his  life,  any  element  or  feature  of  tyranny. 


364  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

He  had  no  love  of  power  for  the  sake  of  power.  He 
preferred  that  every  man  should  act  as  might  seem 
to  him  best ;  and  when,  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties, 
he  was  called  to  enforce  penalties,  or  even  to  re 
move  men  from  place,  he  suffered  more  usually  than 
did  the  subjects  of  his  authority.  It  is  easy  to  un 
derstand  that  this  peculiarity  was  sometimes  an  ob 
stacle  to  the  vigorous  administration  of  affairs. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  have  happened  occa 
sionally  that  these  delays  led  to  a  better  judgment 
in  the  end. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  expres 
sion,  an  industrious  man.  Whatever  he  examined, 
he  examined  carefully  and  thoroughly.  His  pa 
tience  was  unlimited.  He  listened  attentively  to 
advice,  though  it  is  probable  that  he  seldom  asked 
it.  For  nearly  fifty  years  before  he  entered  upon 
the  duties  of  President,  he  had  relied  upon  himself; 
and  it  is  said,  that,  in  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
he  never  sought  opinions  or  suggestions  from  his 
brethren,  except  as  they  were  associated  with  him 
in  particular  causes.  He  had  the  acuteness  of  the 
lawyer  and  the  fairness  of  the  judge.  The  case 
must  be  intricate  indeed  which  he  did  not  easily 
analyze,  so  as  to  distinguish  and  estimate  what 
ever  was  meritorious  or  otherwise  in  it.  He  saw 
also  through  the  motives  of  men.  He  easily  fath 
omed  those  around  him,  and  acted  in  the  end  as 
though  he  understood  their  dispositions  towards 
himself. 

He  appeared  to  possess  an  intuitive  knowledge  of 
the  opinions  and  purposes  of  the  people.  His  sense 
of  justice  was  exact ;  and,  if  he  ever  failed  to  be 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  365 

guided  by  it,  the  departure  was  due  to  the  kindness 
of  his  nature,  which  always  prompted  him  to  look 
with  the  compassion  of  a  parent  upon  the  unfortu 
nate,  —  the  guilty  as  well  as  the  innocent.  He  was 
cautious  in  forming  opinions,  and  disinclined  to  dis 
close  his  purposes  until  the  moment  of  action  ar 
rived.  He  examined  every  subject  of  importance 
with  conscientious  care ;  his  conclusions  were 
formed  under  a  solemn  sense  of  duty ;  and,  while 
that  sense  of  duty  remained,  he  was  firm  in  resisting 
all  counter  influences.  In  unimportant  matters, 
not  involving  principles  or  the  character  of  his  pub 
lic  policy,  he  yielded  readily  to  the  wishes  of  those 
around  him ;  and  thus  they  who  knew  him  or  heard 
of  him  in  these  relations  only  were  misled  as  to  his 
true  character. 

No  magistrate  or  ruler  ever  labored  more  zeal 
ously  to  place  his  measures  and  policy  upon  the 
sure  foundation  of  right ;  and  no  magistrate  or 
ruler  ever  adhered  to  his  measures  and  policy  with 
more  firmness  as  long  as  he  felt  sure  of  the  founda 
tion.  His  last  public  address  is  a  memorable  illus 
tration  of  these  traits  of  character. 

The  charmed  cord  by  which  he  attached  all  to 
him  who  enjoyed  his  acquaintance,  even  in  the 
slightest  degree,  was  the  absence  of  all  pretension 
in  manners,  conversation,  or  personal  appearance. 
This  was  not  humility,  either  real  or  assumed ;  but 
it  was  due  to  an  innate  and  ever-present  conscious 
ness  of  the  equality  of  men.  He  accorded  to  every 
one  who  approached  him,  whatever  his  business  or 
station  in  life,  such  hearing  and  attention  as  cir 
cumstances  permitted.  For  himself  he  asked  noth- 


366  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

ing  of  the  nature  of  personal  consideration.  In 
.  the  multiplicity  of  his  cares,  in  his  daily  attention 
to  cases  touching  the  reputation  and  rights  of  hum 
ble  and  unknown  men,  in  the  patience  with  which 
he  listened  to  the  narratives  of  heart-broken  women 
whose  husbands  or  sons  or  brothers  had  fallen  un 
der  arrest  or  into  disgrace  in  the  military  or  naval 
service  of  the  country,  he  was  indeed  the  servant 
and  the  friend  of  all. 

The  inexorable  rules  of  military  discipline  were 
sometimes  disregarded  by  him ;  he  sought  to  make 
an  open  way  for  justice  through  the  forms  and  tech 
nicalities  of  courts-martial,  bureaus,  and  depart 
ments  ;  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  public  service 
may  have  received  detriment  occasionally  by  the 
too  free  use  of  the  power  to  pardon  and  to  restore. 
But  the  nation  could  well  afford  the  indulgence  of 
his  over-kind  nature  in  these  particulars ;  for  by  this 
kindness  of  nature  he  drew  the  people  to  him,  and 
thus  opinions  were  harmonized,  the  republic  was 
strengthened,  and  the  power  of  its  enemies  sensibly 
diminished. 

Mr.  Lincoln  never  despaired  of  the  republic. 
During  the  dark  days  of  July,  August,  and  Septem 
ber,  1862,  he  was  not  dismayed  by  the  disasters 
which  befell  our  arms.  His  confidence  was  not  in 
our  military  strength  alone :  he  looked  to  the  Lord 
of  hosts  for  the  final  delivery  of  the  people. 

Following  this  attempt  to  analyze  Mr.  Lincoln's 
intellectual  and  moral  character,  it  remains  to  be 
said,  that  neither  this  analysis,  nor  the  statements 
with  which  it  is  connected,  furnish  any  just  idea  of 
the  man.  He  was  more,  he  was  greater,  he  was 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  367 

wiser,  he  was  better,  than  the  ideal  man  which  we 
should  be  authorized  to  create  from  the  qualities 
disclosed  by  the  analysis.  And  so,  possibly,  there 
will  ever  remain  an  apparent  dissimilitude  between 
the  appreciable  individual  qualities  of  the  man  and 
the  man  himself. 

Mr.  Lincoln  w&s  a  wise  man ;  but  he  had  not  the 
wisdom  of  the  ancient  philosophers,  who  declared 
it  to  be  the  knowledge  of  things  both  divine  and 
human,  together  with  the  causes  on  which  they  de 
pend  ;  but  he  was  rather  an  illustration  of  the  prov 
erb  of  Solomon,  — "  The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the 
instruction  of  wisdom.'' 

Mr.  Lincoln  must  ever  be  named  among  the  great 
personages  of  history.  He  will  be  contrasted  rather 
than  compared  with  those  with  whom  he  is  thus  to 
be  associated ;  and,  when  compared  with  any,  he  is 
most  likely  to  be  compared  with  the  Father  of  his 
Country.  If  this  be  so,  then  his  rank  is  already 
fixed  and  secure.  In  many  particulars,  he  differs 
from  other  great  men.  When  his  important  public 
services  began,  he  was  more  than  fifty  years  of  age ; 
while  Cromwell  was  only  forty  years  old  when  called 
from  retirement,  and  most  eminent  men  in  civil  and 
military  life  have  been  distinguished  at  an  earlier 
age.  He  had  no  military  experience  or  military 
fame.  He  was  taken  from  private  life,  and  advanced 
to  the  Presidency,  upon  a  pure  question  or  declara 
tion  of  public  policy, —  the  non-extension  of  slavery. 
He  entered  upon  his  great  office  in  the  presence  of 
assassins  and  traitors  ;  and,  from  that  day  to  the  day 
of  his  death,  he  dwelt  in  their  presence,  and  faith 
fully  performed  his  duties.  He  conducted  the 


368  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

affairs  of  the  republic  in  the  most  perilous  of  times. 
In  the  short  period  of  four  years,  he  called  three 
millions  of  men  into  the  military  service  of  his  coun 
try.  During  his  administration,  a  rebellion,  in 
which  eleven  States  and  six  millions  of  people  were 
involved,  was  effectually  overthrown.  But  the 
great  act  which  secures  to  his  name  all  the  immor 
tality  which  earth  can  bestow  is  the  Proclamation 
of  Emancipation.  The  knowledge  of  that  deed  can 
never  die.  On  this  continent  it  will  be  associated 
with  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  with 
that  alone.  One  made  a  nation  independent:  the 
other  made  a  race  free. 

There  are  four  million  of  people  in  this  country 
who  now  regard  Abraham  Lincoln  as  their  deliverer 
from  bondage,  and  whose  posterity,  through  all  the 
coming  centuries,  will  render  tribute  of  praise  to 
his  name  and  memory.  But  his  fame  in  connection 
with  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  will  not  be 
left  to  the  care  of  those  who  have  been  the  recipi 
ents  of  the  boon  of  freedom.  The  white  people  of 
the  South  will  yet  rejoice  in  the  knowledge  of  their 
own  deliverance  through  this  gift  to  the  now-de 
spised  colored  man.  And  finally,  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  of  the  American  continent,  together 
with  the  whole  family  of  civilized  man,  shall  join 
in  honors  to  the  memory  of  him  who  freed  a  race 
and  saved  a  nation. 

What  fame  that  is  human  merely  can  be  more  se 
cure  ?  What  glory  that  is  of  earth  can  be  more 
enduring  ?  What  deed  for  good  can  be  more  wide 
spread  ? 

The  knowledge  and  influence  of  the  great  act  of 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  369 

his  life  will  extend  to  every  continent  and  to  all 
races.  It  will  advance  with  civilization  into  Africa  ; 
it  will  shake  and  finally  overthrow  slavery  in  the 
dominions  of  Spain,  and  in  the  empire  of  Brazil ; 
and  at  last,  in  that  it  saved  a  republic  and  perpet 
uated  a  free  representative  government  as  an  exam 
ple  and  model  for  mankind,  it  will  undermine  the 
monarchical,  aristocratic,  and  despotic  institutions 
of  Europe  and  Asia. 

What  fame  that  is  human  merely  can  be  more  se 
cure?  What  glory  that  is  of  earth  can  be  more 
enduring?  What  deed  for  good  can  be  more  wide- 


Yet  this  great  act  of  his  life  rested  on  a  founda 
tion  on  which  all  may  stand.  In  the  place  where 
he  was,  he  did  that  which,  in  his  judgment,  duty  to 
his  country  and  to  his  God  required.  This  is,  in 
deed,  his  highest  praise,  and  the  only  eulogy  that  his 
life  demands. 

That  he  had  greater  opportunities  than  other 
men  was  his  responsibility  and  burden :  that  he 
used  his  great  opportunities  for  the  preservation  of 
his  country  and  the  relief  of  the  oppressed  is  his 
own  glory. 

Had  Mr.  Lincoln  been  permitted  to  reach  the 
age  attained  by  Jefferson  or  Adams,  his  death 
would  have  produced  a  profound  impression  upon 
his  countrymen. 

Had  he  now,  in  the  opening  months  of  his  second 
administration,  fallen  by  accident  or  yielded  to  dis 
ease,  the  nation  would  have  been  bowed  down  in 
inexpressible  grief.  Every  loyal  heart  would  have 
been  burdened  with  a  weight  of  sorrow,  and  every 

24 


V 

370  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

loyal  household  would  have  felt  as  though  a  place 
had  been  made  vacant  at  its  own  hearth-stone. 

That  he  has  now  fallen  by  the  hand  of  an  assas 
sin  is  in  itself  a  horror  too  appalling  for  contempla 
tion.  Had  the  deed  been  committed  in  ancient 
Greece  or  Rome,  we  could  not  now  read  the  histo 
rian's  record  without  a  shudder  and  a  tear.  All 
those  qualities  in  the  illustrious  victim  which  we 
cherish  were  spurs,  ever  goading  the  conspirators 
on  to  the  consummation  of  their  crime. 

His  love  of  country  and  of  liberty,  his  devotion 
to  duty,  his  firmness  and  persistency  in  the  right, 
his  kindness  of  heart  and  his  spirit  of  mercy  were 
all  reasons  or  inducements  influencing  the  purposes 
of  the  conspirators.  Neither  greatness  nor  good 
ness  was  a  shield.  Had  he  been  greater  and  better 
and  wiser  than  he  was,  his  fate  would  have  been 
the  same. 

In  this  hour  of  calamity,  let  not  the  thirst  for  ven 
geance  take  possession  of  our  souls.  But  justice 
should  be  done.  The  circle  of  conspirators  is  al 
ready  broken  and  entered  by  the  officers  of  the  law, 
and  mankind  will  finally  be  permitted  to  see  who 
were  the  authors,  and  who  the  perpetrators,  of  this 
great  crime.  For  the  members  of  this  circle, 
whether  it  be  small  or  large,  and  whomsoever  it 
may  include,  there  should  be  neither  compassion 
nor  mercy,  but  justice,  and  only  justice.  Judged 
as  men  judge,  this  crime  is  too  great  for  pardon. 
The  criminals  can  find  no  protection  or  harbor  in 
any  civilized  country.  Let  the  government  pursue 
them  with  its  full  power  until  the  last  one  disap 
pears  from  earth.  Vex  every  sea,  visit  every  island, 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN.  371 

traverse  every  continent,  let  there  be  no  abiding- 
place  for  these  criminals  between  the  Arctic  seas 
and  the  Antarctic  pole. 

This,  Justice  demands  as  she  sits  in  judgment 
upon  this  unparalleled  crime. 

One  duty  and  one  consolation  remain.  He  who 
destroyed  slavery  was  himself  by  slavery  destroyed. 
Whoever  the  assassin,  and  however  numerous  the 
conspirators,  love  of  slavery  was  the  evil  spirit  which 
had  entered  into  these  men  and  taken  possession  of 
them.  Slavery  is  the  source  and  fountain  of  the 
crime,  and  all  they  who  have  given  their  support  to 
slavery  are  in  some  degree  responsible  for  the  aw 
ful  deed.  Let,  then,  the  nation  purify  itself  from 
this  the  foulest  of  sins.  And  this  is  our  duty. 

In  the  providence  of  God,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  per 
mitted  to  do  more  than  any  other  man  of  this  cen 
tury  for  his  country,  for  liberty,  and  for  mankind. 
Mr.  Lincoln  is  dead ;  but  the  nation  lives,  and  the 
providence  of  God  ever  continues.  No  single  life 
was  ever  yet  essential  to  the  life  of  a  nation.  This 
is  our  consolation  and  ground  for  confidence  in  the 
future. 


372 


RECONSTRUCTION:    ITS  TRUE  BASIS. 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  AT  WEYMOUTH,  MASS.,   JULY  4,   1865. 


series  of  events  of  the  last  four  years, 
ending  in  the  overthrow  of  the  rebellion,  im 
pose  upon  us  obligations  and  duties  more  important 
and  solemn  than  have  rested  upon  the  American 
people  at  any  previous  period  in  their  history.  We 
are  able,  however,  for  the  first  time  to  rejoice  in 
the  complete,  or,  at  least,  in  the  near,  fulfilment 
of  the  great  truths  contained  in  the  second  para 
graph  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Our 
ancestors  said  :  "  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self- 
evident,  —  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  that 
they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain 
natural,  essential,  and  unalienable  rights,  among 
which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness."  They  believed  these  cardinal  truths  ;  and 
Mr.  Jefferson,  in  the  original  draft  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  charged  the  King  of  Great 
Britain,  in  addition  to  many  other  allegations,  with 
the  pre-eminent  crime  of  having  countenanced  the 
African  slave-trade,  and  opposed  all  measures  for 
its  overthrow  or  restriction.  We  have  passed  through 
a  great  struggle,  which  was  a  necessary  incident  of 
our  national  life,  due  to  the  fact,  which  now  we 
can  comprehend,  and  which  it  is  neither  disgrace 
to  our  fathers,  nor  dishonor  to  us,  to  confess,  that 


RECONSTRUCTION:     ITS   TRUE   BASIS.  373 

our  national  system  contained  a  fundamental  error ; 
namely,  that  it  was  possible  to  set  up  and  main 
tain  permanently  a  government  based  in  part  upon 
the  principle  that  "  all  men  are  created  equal,"  and 
in  part  upon  the  principle  that  a  certain  portion 
of  mankind  have  the  right  to  hold  a  certain  other 
portion  in  bondage.  This  was  the  experiment  in 
government  tried  here  by  the  adoption  of  the  Con 
stitution  of  1789,  and  the  experiment  has  failed. 
The  government  which  was  then  set  up,  founded 
in  part  upon  the  principles  of  freedom  and  in  part 
upon  the  principles  of  slavery,  has  failed ;  it  has 
gone  down  in  blood,  amid  horrors  such  as  have  not 
often  been  witnessed  in  Christian  countries.  There 
has  been  no  failure  of  republican  institutions  ;  noth 
ing  has  occurred  to  diminish  our  confidence  in  the 
capacity  of  the  people  to  govern  themselves ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  their  conduct  in  relation  to  the 
questions  and  issues  of  the  times  is  the  sublimest 
event  of  history,  and  furnishes  conclusive  evidence 
that  just  governments  are  strong,  and  democratic 
governments  are  wise.  The  question  before  us  is, 
whether  out  of  this  struggle  there  shall  come  a 
nation  purified  and  glorious  and  permanent  in  its 
institutions  and  in  its  policy,  or  not. 

Thus  far,  under  Providence,  the  Union  and  the 
cause  of  justice  have  triumphed.  We  look  upon 
the  past  with  satisfaction,  marred  in  two  particulars 
only :  first,  that  so  many  of  the  brave  men  of  the 
republic  have  fallen  in  defence  of  its  principles  and 
of  its  integrity ;  and,  secondly,  that  he  who  was 
the  moderate,  consistent,  and  trusted  leader  of  the 
people  finally  became  the  great  martyr  to  repub- 


374  RECONSTRUCTION  :    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

lican  institutions,  to  the  right  of  this  nation  to  be 
free. 

I  congratulate  myself,  and  I  congratulate  you, 
that,  in  the  course  of  remark  on  which  I  purpose 
to  enter  to-day,  I  follow  the  lead  of  that  great 
man,  —  who,  intellectually  and  morally,  will  stand 
among  the  foremost  men  of  this  country,  of  this 
age,  and  of  the  world,  —  in  reference  to  the  rights 
of  the  negro  race  as  citizens  of  this  country,  and 
inhabitants  of  this  continent.  We  know  now,  from 
the  record  exposed  since  his  death,  that  it  was  one 
of  the  objects  which  he  had  near  to  his  heart,  to 
secure  to  the  negro  population  the  right  of  suffrage, 
without  which,  I  shall,  as  I  think,  be  able  to  show 
you,  there  can,  in  this  country,  and  under  repub 
lican  institutions,  be  no  security  for  any  other  right 
whatever. 

We  have  come  out  of  the  war  triumphantly.  We 
entered  upon  it,  four  years  ago,  reluctantly,  uncer 
tain  as-  to  the  issue.  There  were  those  then  who, 
seeing  beyond  the  present  moment,  were  assured 
that  the  people  who  occupied  the  continent,  the 
descendants  of  the  men  who,  in  the  first  paragraph 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  before  the 
Constitution  was  formed,  or  the  Union,  in  terms, 
had  an  existence,  declared  that  these  then  united 
colonies  constituted  one  people,  would  never  give 
up  their  right  to  be  the  inhabitants  of  a  country 
indivisible  and  perpetual.  That  expectation,  gen 
tlemen,  has  not  only  been  realized,  but  we  have 
also  subjugated  those  who,  more  than  thirty  years 
ago,  treasonably  conspired  for  the  overthrow  of 
this  government,  for  the  destruction  of  republican 


RECONSTRUCTION:  ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          375 

institutions  on  this  continent,  and  for  the  suppres 
sion  of  the  hopes  of  liberty  and  of  freemen  through 
out  the  world.  They  are  subjugated;  and  the 
question  remaining  for  you,  citizen  soldiers,  for  you, 
citizens  of  the  republic,  to  decide,  is,  whether,  in 
the  reconstruction  of  the  government,  those  men, 
and  they  who,  like  them  in  principle,  are  like  them 
also  in  purposes,  shall  re-appear  to  guide,  control, 
disturb,  and  finally  ruin  the  republic,  or  whether 
you  will  reconstruct  the  nation  upon  the  eternal 
principle  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  that 
"  all  men  are  created  equal."  Justice,  justice,  is 
the  only  foundation  for  statesmanship,  the  only 
security  for  national  life ;  and  our  fathers,  in  depart 
ing  from  the  principle  of  justice  in  the  original 
construction  of  this  government,  left  to  their  pos 
terity  the  woes  through  which  we  have  passed. 
Believing,  as  I  do,  that  these  horrors  and  sacrifices 
and  sufferings  are  a  just  judgment  of  Heaven  upon 
this  nation,  for  its  great  sin  in  reference  to  the 
institution  of  slavery,  which  is  but  one  form  of  in 
justice,  so  here  and  everywhere  during  these  four 
years  I  do  pledge  and  have  pledged  myself  to  resist 
the  re-establishment  of  this  government  upon  the 
principle  of  injustice.  If  there  be  those,  few  or  many, 
who,  in  their  anxiety  to  reconstruct  their  govern 
ment  speedily  and  according  to  .its  ancient  forms, 
choose  to  forego  the  securities  which  ought  to  be 
taken,  I  have  no  lot  or  part  with  them.  I  prefer 
to  stand  alone,  upon  the  principle  of  justice,  as  the 
only  foundation  on  which  the  government  can  se 
curely  rest.  And  if  there  be  those  who  choose  to 
take  the  responsibility  of  becoming,  in  the  eyes  of 


376          RECONSTRUCTION:  ITS  TRUE  BASIS. 

posterity,  the  agents  for  the  repetition  of  the  woes 
which  we  have  endured,  let  the  responsibility  be 
upon  them.  I  feel  assured,  however,  that  whatever 
may  be  the  prejudices  of  some,  whatever  may  be 
the  influence  of  tradition  upon  others,  whatever  may 
be  the  distinctions  of  race  or  color  that  exist  among 
us,  the  people  of  this  country  are  finally  to  re-estab 
lish  the  government  upon  the  distinct  enunciation 
of  the  doctrine  that  "  all  men  are  created  equal." 
Building  upon  that  foundation,  the  nation  will  with 
stand  the  storms  and  the  floods  of  time :  but  if 
you  build  upon  injustice,  upon  wrong,  upon  distinc 
tions  of  race,  of  color,  or  upon  caste,  you  build 
upon  the  sand ;  and  when  the  storms  come,  and  the 
winds  blow,  and  the  rains  fall,  then  will  the  structure 
that  you  have  reared  be  brought  down  in  ruin  upon 
your  heads. 

Nor  is  the  triumph  of  the  day  limited  to  the 
restoration  of  the  Union  as  a  result,  and  the  over 
throw  of  slavery  as  an  incident,  of  the  war.  We 
have  placed  the  United  States,  as  a  nation,  in  the 
front  rank  of  the  nations  of  the  earth.  We  have 
had  no  war  with  England  or  with  France,  and  we 
trust  that  the  time  is  far  distant  when  there  shall 
be  any  rupture  of  the  relations  of  amity  that  now 
exist.  This  nation  is  for  peace,  as  it  ever  has  been ; 
but,  in  the  subjugation  of  the  rebels  of  the  South, 
we  have  conquered  both  England  and  France,  as 
well  as  the  enemies  of  republican  institutions  the 
world  over.  If  you  were  to  ask  an  Englishman 
whether  France  or  the  United  States  is  the  first 
naval  and  military  power  of  the  world,  he  would 
answer  at  once,  the  United  States.  If  you  were 


RECONSTRUCTION:   ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          377 

to  ask  a  Frenchman  whether  England  or  the  United 
States  is  the  first  naval  and  military  power,  he 
would  also  answer,  the  United  States.  If  you  were 
'to  put  the  question  to  a  Russian  whether  England 
or  France  or  the  United  States  is  the  chief  military 
and  naval  power  of  the  world,  he  would  at  once 
answer,  the  United  States.  As  Themistocles  ac 
quired  the  reputation  of  being  the  first  general  of 
Greece,  by  the  circumstance  that  all  his  rivals 
recognized  him  as  the  second  in  merit,  each  claim 
ing  to  be  first  himself;  so  we,  by  the  judgment  of 
the  people  of  all  those  nations,  are  to-day  accorded 
the  chief  rank  among  the  naval  and  military  powers 
of  the  earth. 

I  hope  you  will  pardon  me,  my  friends,  if  now, 
before  I  proceed  to  the  purpose  which  I  have  in 
view  on  this  occasion,  I  refer  to  the  circumstance 
of  my  invitation  to  speak  here  to-day,  that  there 
may  be  no  misunderstanding  on  the  part  of  any. 
Your  committee,  when  thus  honoring  me,  "received 
the  statement  that  I  preferred  not  then  to  accept  it, 
but  rather  desired  that  they  should  communicate 
to  their  associates  of  the  committee,  and  to  the 
public  possibly  to  some  extent,  the  fact,  that,  if  I  ac 
cepted  the  invitation,  I  must  do  it  with  the  distinct 
understanding,  that  I  was  to  discuss  those  topics, 
and  those  only,  which  concern  the  fortunes  of  the 
country.  The  time  has  long  since  passed  when  I 
had  the  ambition  to  speak  for  the  purpose  of  speak 
ing  ;  and,  during  this  war,  I  have  invariably  declared 
what  I  believed  to  be  the  truth  without  regard  to 
any  consequences  personal  to  myself. 

I  wish,  also,  thus  early  to  state   my  views   of 


878  RECONSTRUCTION:    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

the  policy  now  pursued  by  the  administration  in 
reference  to  the  great  subject  of  reconstruction, 
because  it  is  quite  likely  there  may  be  some  pres 
ent  who  will  draw  inferences  from  what  I  shall 
Coffer.  If  I  understand  President  Johnson,  he  does 
/not  object  to  negro  suffrage.  It  is,  however,  his 
*  desire  that  the  right  should  be  extended  to  the 
negroes  of  the  once-existing  eleven  States,  recently 
in  rebellion,  by  the  white  people  of  those  States, 
who  were  authorized  to  vote  when  the  rebellion 
commenced.  If  negro  suffrage  can  be  secured  in 
that  way,  I  shall,  for  one,  readily  accept  the  re 
sult  without  any  inquiry  as  to  the  means.  But 
if,  on  the  other  hand,  as  I  expect,  the  attempt 
to  secure  negro  suffrage,  through  the  white  peo 
ple  of  the  eleven  rebel  States,  shall  fail,  I  then 
expect  that  President  Johnson,  and  .those  who  are 
co-operating  with  him,  will  accept  the  judgment 
of  the  country,  —  if  it  shall  prove  to  be  the  judg 
ment  of  the  country,  —  that  negro  suffrage  must 
be  secured  by  some  other  means.  Therefore,  while 
I  am  content  that  these  efforts  should  be  made, 
and  while  I  shall  welcome  the  result  if  it  be  favor 
able,  I  look  upon  the  efforts  as  experiments,  not 
'Abinding  upon  President  Johnson  or  upon  his  ad- 
yninistration  or  on  the  country ;  and,  as  was  the 
fact  in  1861  and  '62  in  reference  to  the  expediency 
of  emancipation  and  the  enrolment  of  colored 
soldiers  in  the  army  of  the  republic,  I  now  expect 
that  the  people  will  take  this  matter  into  their  own 
hands.  I  believe  with  reference  to  President  John 
son,  as  in  1861  and  '62  I  believed  in  reference 
to  President  Lincoln,  that  he  will  accept  the  judg- 


RECONSTRUCTION:   ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          379 

ment  of  the  country,  if,  upon  the  whole,  the  public 
opinion  shall  be  that  negro  suffrage  is  essential  to 
the  security  of  the  Union,  as  well  as  to  the  pro 
tection  of  the  negroes  themselves.  Therefore  I 
counsel  discussion,  argument,  on  the  part  of  those 
who  believe  in  negro  suffrage ;  patience,  that  those 
in  authority  may  have  an  opportunity  to  make  this 
effort  to  secure  the  reconstruction  of  the  govern 
ment  according  to  the  ideas  that  have  first  presented 
themselves  to  them ;  that  no  one  be  committed  to 
any  particular  line  of  policy,  but  all  look  to  the 
grand  result,  —  the  reconstruction  of  the  goverment 
upon  the  principle  of  the  equality  of  men. 

But  such  is  my  confidence  in  the  justice  of  the 
policy  which  we  maintain,  such  my  conviction  of  its 
necessity,  that  I  am  assured  it  does  not  only  not 
need  the  support  which  we  now  attempt  to  render, 
but  that  its  success  is  not  even  dependent  upon 
the  power  of  office  or  the  wisdom  of  leaders. 

There  was  a  divine  policy  in  our   affairs  which 

/Vt 

made  emancipation  a  necessity ;  and  we  are  now  so  *' 
subject   to   circumstances   that    all    plans   for   the 
reconstruction   of   the   government   which    do    not 
recognize  the  political  rights  of  the  negro  are  sure 
to  fail.     The  white  men  of  the  North  must  recog^ 
nize  the  political   rights  of  the  black  men  of  the 
South,  or  surrender  their  own  equality  in  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  country.     They  must  decree  politi 
cal  freedom  for  the  blacks,  or  accept  political  inferi^ 
ority  for  themselves.     Hence  I  well   know  in  the 
beginning  what   their  conduct  will   be.     Nor  do  I 
underestimate  the  apparent  difficulties  in  our  way. 
There  is,  first,  the  wide-spread  and  plausible  error, 


380  EECONSTRUCTION  :    ITS   TRUE   $ASIS. 

which  I  shall  attempt  now  to  refute,  that,  if  we  deny 
the  existence  of  the  eleven  States  as  States,  we 
admit  the  heresy  of  secession ;  there  is  next  the 
(prejudice  against  the  negro  race,  coupled  with  a  sad 
misapprehension  as  to  his  capacity  to  take  care  of 
himself,  and  to  serve  the  country;  and,  finally,  there 
is  the  difficulty,  amounting  to  an  ohstacle  in  the 
estimation  of  some,  that  certain  of  the  loyal  States 
do  even  now  deny  to  the  negro  the  right  of  fran- 
(chise.  But  all  these  are  errors,  misfortunes,  and 
(wrongs,  rather  than  serious  difficulties  in  our  way. 
When  slavery  existed,  citizenship  was  of  course 
denied  to  the  slave  class  in  all  the  slave  States.  It 
was  also  natural  in  States  where  slavery  did  not 
exist,  but  where  its  ideas  were  carried  by  immigrants, 
or  where  its  social  and  business  influences  prevailed, 
or,  possibly,  by  mere  comity  in  some  cases,  that  the 
public  policy  should  be  fashioned  upon  the  theory, 
that  slavery,  or  at  least  a  condition  of  political 
inferiority,  was  the  proper  fortune  of  the  black  man. 
It  is  likely  that  the  overthrow  of  slavery  will  be 
followed  by  a  revision  of  this  policy  ;  but,  in  any 
event,  the  argument  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage  in  the 
rebellious  districts  is  as  valid  when  addressed  to 
Illinois  or  Indiana  as  when  addressed  to  New  York 
or  Massachusetts. 

The  war  for  freedom  and  the  Union  has  been 
carried  on  by  the  whites  and  negroes  born  on  this 
continent,  by  the  Irish  and  the  Germans,  and,  in 
deed,  by  representatives  of  every  European  race. 
With  this  fresh  experience,(we  ought  to  make  it  a 
part  of  the  organic  government,  that  no  State  shall 
make  any  distinction  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  elec 
tive  franchise  on  account  of  race  or  coloM 


RECONSTRUCTION:   ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          381 

Asking  you  to  bear  with  me  while  I  proceed 
further  in  the  discussion  of  this  subject,  I  desire  to 
call  your  attention  to  the  question  of  the  power 
of  the  national  government  over  the  eleven  States 
that  have  been  engaged  in  this  rebellion ;  to  the 
question  of  power  with  reference  to  the  result  we 
seek,  —  the  right  of  the  negro  to  vote  in  the  State 
where  he  happens  to  be.  There  are  those  who 
believe  that  these  eleven  States  are  States  in  the 
Union,  precisely  as  they  were  in  1860 ;  or,  rather, 
there  are  those  who  use  language  which  would 
lead  us  to  believe  that  they  are  of  opinion  that 
the  eleven  rebellious  States  are  still  States  in  the 
Union.  The  fact,  however,  is,  that  the  govern 
ment,  during  these  four  years,  has  proceeded  upon 
the  idea  that  they  were  not  States.  President 
Johnson  himself,  in  the  declarations  he  makes  to  the 
provisional  Governors  whom  he  is  just  now  appoint 
ing,  says,  that,  in  order  that  the  representatives  of 
those  States  may  be  recognized  by  the  Senate  and 
House,  they  must  abolish  the  institution  of  slavery, 
and  ratify  the  amendment  to  the  Constitution, 
prohibiting  slavery  in  the  United  States.  Would 
he  address  that  language  to  New  York  or  Ohio  or 
Massachusetts?  In  the  very  fact 'that  provisional 
Governors  are  appointed ;  in  the  very  fact  that  terms 
are  made  with  those  provisional  Governors,  and, 
through  them,  with  the  people,  —  we  have  evidence 
abundant  that  the  President  does  not  recognize 
these  States  as  States  in  the  Union,  with  the  powers 
of  the  old  States.  They  are  in  a  different  condi 
tion,  confessedly.  Will  any  one  even  pretend  that 
South  Carolina  has  the  same  immediate,  unques- 


382  EECONSTRUCTION  :    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

tionable,  indisputable  right  of  representation  in  the 
Senate  and  House  that  is  enjoyed  by  New  York  and 
the  other  loyal  States  ?  In  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  for  example,  although  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  says  that  a  majority  of  the 
House  shall  be  a  quorum  for  doing  business,  and  it 
would  require  one  hundred  and  eighteen  at  least  to 
make  a  majority  of  all  the  members  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  including  Representatives  from  the 
eleven  disloyal  States,  we  still  have  been  acting  — 
laws  have  been  passed,  armies  have  been  raised, 
public  debt  has  been  incurred,  bonds  have  been 
issued  —  upon  the  principle  that  a  quorum  was  a 
majority  of  the  representatives  from  the  loyal  States. 
Ninety-four,  instead  of  one  hundred  and  eighteen, 
has  been  the  recognized  quorum  of  the  Thirty-Eighth 
Congress.  We  have  acted  upon  the  principle  that 
those  who  were  not  present,  who  were  voluntarily 
absent,  were  not  to  be  considered  or  consulted  at 
all ;  and  in  the  same  manner,  gentlemen,  we  shall  be 
obliged  to  act  finally  in  reference  to  the  amendment 
to  the  Constitution.  There  are  twenty-five  loyal 
States  of  the  Union :  there  are  eleven  disloyal 
States,  that  have  not  been  represented  in  either 
branch  of  Congress  for  four  years,  that  have  had 
neither  governor  nor  judge  nor  legislator  within 
their  limits  sworn  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  all  their 
State  and  local  officers  have  taken  an  oath,  abjuring 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  I  wish,  in  the 
beginning,  to  assail  the  doctrine  that  these  States, 
because  they  were  once  States  in  this  Union,  are 
still  States  in  this  Union.  We  assert  that  they 


RECONSTRUCTION:  ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          383 

have  ceased  to  exist,  and  I  think  I  can  show  you 
how  they  have  ceased  to  exist.  Consider,  first, 
how  a  State  is  created.  It  is  created,  as  you  all 
know,  by  the  will  of  the  people  within  its  limits. 
How  was  Massachusetts  created  ?  By  an  assembly 
of  the  representatives  of  the  people  of  the  State 
forming  a  Constitution,  submitting  it  to  the  people, 
and,  when  that  Constitution  was  ratified,  by  the 
election  of  officers  under  it.  They  did  not  yield  to 
external  power  or  external  authority.  A  State,  as 
a  political  organization,  is  the  product,  the  political 
product,  of  the  people  within  its  limits ;  it  cannot 
be  created,  it  never  has  been  created,  by  any  exter 
nal  force  whatever.  But  what  follows  ?  I  am,  as  far 
as  this  doctrine  is  concerned,  a  State-rights  man ; 
not  one  who  believes  in  the  sovereignty  of  the  State 
over  the  nation,  not  one  who  believes  in  the  right  of 
the  smallest  State  —  as  Delaware,  for  example  —  to 
decide  whether  this  republic  has  a  right  to  exist  or 
not ;  but  I  am  of  those  who  believe  that  State  rights 
are  a  necessary  and  essential  fact  in  the  political 
organization  and  constitution  of  this  country ;  and, 
while  subject  to  the  supreme  authority  of  the 
nation,  the  States  are  powerful  instruments  to  pro 
tect  public  liberty,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and 
secure  the  blessings  of  freedom  to  ourselves  and 
our  posterity. 

Can  a  State  be  destroyed  ?  I  answer,  it  can. 
That  is  to  say,  its  political  existence,  including  its 
organic  law,  can  be  destroyed,  —  eradicated.  By 
whom  ?  By  the  people  who  created  it.  Do  you  say 
they  have  no  right  to  destroy  it?  I  answer,  in 
concurrence,  they  have  no  right  to  destroy  it ;  but 


384          RECONSTRUCTION:  ITS  TRUE  BASIS. 

we  must  look  at  the  fact,  and  not  at  theories,  nor 
even  at  the  mere  declaration  of  the  law.  The 
declaration  of  the  law,  both  human  and  divine,  is, 
that  no  man  has  a  right  to  take  his  own  life ;  but 
it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  take  his  life,  and,  when  he 
has  taken  his  life,  it  is  useless,  it  is  visionary,  it  is 
insane,  for  men  to  stand  up  and  say,  "  This  thing 
cannot  be  done :  God's  law  is  against  it."  It  is 
done :  the  dead  body  is  before  you.  And  so  it  is 
useless  to  say  that  the  people  of  a  State  cannot 
destroy  the  State,  because  they  have  110  legal  right 
so  to  do.  It  is  not  a  question  of  legal  right :  it  is  a 
question  of  fact. 

Now,  what  are  the  facts  ?  Take  South  Carolina, 
for  example.  Is  she  a  State  of  the  American 
Union  ?  Did  she  not,  in  the  most  solemn  manner 
known  to  human  proceedings,  in  December,  1860, 
declare  that  she  ceased  to  exist  as  a  State  of  the 
American  Union  ?  Did  she  not  proceed,  in  con 
formity  with  that  declaration,  to  annul  all  her 
relations  to  the  national  government,  and  to  create 
new  relations  with  another  government,  foreign  and 
hostile  to  the  government  of  the  United  States  ? 
and  has  she  not,  during  these  four  years,  sturdily 
refused  to  elect  any  man  to  office  who  was  known 
to  be  in  favor  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States  ?  and,  after  all  this,  do  you  say  that  South 
Carolina  is  still  a  State  of  the  American  Union  ? 

What  else  did  she  do  ?  She  preserved  her  State 
organization ;  but  she  transferred  her  allegiance  to 
the  so-called  Confederate  States.  Hence,  as  a  polit 
ical  organization,  as  a  body  or  corporation  or  State 
which  the  government  of  the  United  States  could 


RECONSTRUCTION:    ITS   TRUE   BASIS.  385 

recognize,  she,  by  her  own  act,  ceased  to  exist. 
What  followed  ?  By  the  success  of  our  arms,  we 
have  destroyed  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  that 
professed  to  owe  allegiance  to  the  so-called  Con 
federate  States,  and  the  old  State  of  South  Carolina 
has  not  been  reproduced  ;  and  therefore  there  is  no 
State  of  South  Carolina,  as  a  political  organization, 
which  can  be  recognized.  All  men,  I  think,  when 
put  to  the  test,  will  admit  it.  If  Mr.  Rhett,  or  any 
other  man  from  South  Carolina,  were  to  come  to 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  say,  "  South 
Carolina  is  a  State  in  this  nation,  I  have  been  duly 
elected  by  the  legislature  of  that  State,  I  ask  for  my 
seat,"  would  he  not  be  rejected?  —  and  for  this 
reason,  that  South  Carolina,  at  the  present  moment, 
in  the  judgment  of  everybody,  has  not  that  immedi 
ate  and  distinct  and  unquestioned  and  unquestion 
able  right  to  be  represented  in  Congress,  that 
appertains  to  New  York  or  Pennsylvania  or  Ohio. 
What  I  ask  of  the  country  is  to  accept  the  fact, 
that  the  political  organization  known  as  South 
Carolina  has  ceased  to  exist  by  the  will  of  the 
people  who  at  the  first  created,  and  who  from  the 
first  until  1860  sustained,  that  organization  as  one 
of  the  States  of  the  American  Union.  What  fol 
lows  ?  That  South  Carolina,  the  people  and  terri 
tory,  are  out  of  the  Union  ?  that  they  have 
seceded?  By  no  means.  The  jurisdiction  and 
authority  which  the  national  government  originally 
had  over  the  territory  and  people  of  South  Carolina 
remain  ;  and  we  shall  exercise  that  jurisdiction  and 
authority  just  as  far  and  as  fast  as  we  can.  But 
the  result  is,  that,  for  the  purposes  of  government 

25 


386  RECONSTRUCTION  :    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

to-day,  South  Carolina  is  a  blank  piece  of  paper,  on 
which  may  be  written  a  new  form  of  government, 
on  which  a  new  form  of  government  must  be 
written  by  the  people  of  South  Carolina,  and  can 
be  written  by  nobody  else.  What  next  ?  What  is 
the  authority  of  the  general  government  ?  A 
State  may  exist  by  the  will  of  its  own  people ;  but 
it  cannot  exist,  primarily  and  originally,  as  a  State 
of  the  American  Union,  and,  indeed,  it  cannot 
exist  at  all  as  a  State  of  the  American  Union, 
except  by  the  consent  of  the  representatives  of  the 
existing  government.  Therefore,  when  South  Caro 
lina  has  formed  her  government,  and  asks  for  the 
admission  of  her  Senators  and  Representatives '  into 
Congress,  it  is  then  for  the  representatives  of  the 
existing  States  and  of  the  people  of  the  Union  to 
say  whether  they  shall  be  admitted  or  not.  At  this 
stage  in  the  proceedings,  there  is  a  legal  and  con 
stitutional  opportunity  to  examine  their  principles 
of  government,  and  decide  whether  they  are  in 
general  correspondence  with  the  settled  policy  of 
the  country. 

If  you  assent  to  what  I  have  said  thus  far,  then 
I  ask  you  confidently  to  accept  without  argument 
the  proposition,  which  I  should  be  ashamed  to  argue 
to  any  of  my  countrymen,  that  a  Constitution  which 
disfranchises  more  than  half  the  people  of  a  State 
is  not  a  "  republican  form  of  government,"  in  the 
eye  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
which  we  are  bound  to  protect  a  people  in  maintain 
ing  and  enjoying.  It  is  just  at  this  point  that  we 
have  the  power  over  the  people  of  all  the  rebel 


RECONSTRUCTION:   ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          387 

States  with  reference  to  the  constitutions  or  forms 
of  government  which  they  may  set  up. 

"With  your  leave,  gentlemen,  I  will  read  a  state 
ment,  as  succinct  and  direct  as  I  could  prepare 
upon  this  point,  which  was  framed  more  than  a 
year  since,  and  which  I  have  no  disposition  to  alter 
in  the  least  degree.  It  is  this :  that  a  State  can 
exist  or  cease  to  exist  only  by  the  will  of  the 
people  within  its  limits,  and  it  cannot  be  created  or 
destroyed  by  the  external  force  or  opinion  of  other 
States,  or  even  by  the  judgment  or  action  of  the 
nation  itself;  a  State,  when  created  by  the  will  of 
its  people,  can  become  a  member  of  the  American 
Union  only  by  its  own  organized  action  and  the 
concurrent  action  of  the  existing  national  govern 
ment;  when  a  State  has  been  admitted  to  the 
Union,  no  vote,  resolution,  ordinance,  or  proceed 
ing  on  its  part,  however  formal  in  character  or 
vigorously  sustained,  can  deprive  the  national  gov 
ernment  of  the  legal  jurisdiction  and  sovereignty 
over  the  territory  and  people  of  such  State  which 
existed  previous  to  the  act  of  admission,  or  which 
were  acquired  thereby ;  that  the  effect  of  the  so- 
called  acts,  resolutions,  and  ordinances  of  secession 
adopted  by  the  eleven  States  engaged  in  the  present 
rebellion  is,  and  can  only  be,  to  destroy  those 
political  organizations  as  States,  while  the  legal  and 
constitutional  jurisdiction  and  authority  of  the 
national  government  over  the  people  and  territory 
remain  unimpaired ;  that  these  several  communities 
can  be  organized  into  States  only  by  the  will  of  the 
loyal  people,  expressed  freely  and  in  the  absence  of 
all  coercion ;  that  States  so  organized  can  become 


388  RECONSTRUCTION:    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

States  of  the  American  Union  only  when  they  shall 
have  applied  for  admission,  and  their  admission 
shall  have  been  authorized  by  the  existing  national 
government ;  that  when  a  people  have  organized  a 
State  upon  the  basis  of  allegiance  to  the  Union,  and 
applied  for  admission,  the  character  of  the  institu 
tions  of  such  proposed  State  may  constitute  a 
sufficient  justification  for  granting  or  rejecting  such 
application. 

But,  if  there  be  those  among  you  who  still  doubt 
the  authority  of  the  national  government  over  the 
people  and  territory  of  the  eleven  rebellious  States, 
I  ask  them  to  consider  the  fact  that  the  Supreme 
Court  has  decided  that  we  have  been  engaged  in  a 
territorial  war,  and  that,  with  reference  to  the  terri 
tory  and  people  in  antagonism  to  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  we  have  all  the  rights  of  a 
belligerent  power.  We  have  carried  on  the  war  to 
a  successful  termination ;  we  have  subjugated  the 
rebellious  people ;  we  have  overthrown  their  mili 
tary  power ;  we  have  acquired  jurisdiction  over  the 
territory ;  and  consequently  we  have  a  right  to 
demand  as  much  as  we  should,  if,  in  a  war  with 
Mexico,  we  had  acquired  Chihuahua  or  Sonora, — 
that,  when  these  once-existing  States  are  recon 
structed  and  admitted  to  the  Union,  they  shall  come 
with  institutions  which  are  in  substantial  harmony 
with  the  settled  policy  of  the  nation.  And  there 
fore,  upon  either  of  these  theories,  —  upon  the 
theory  of  the  power  of  the  people  of  the  rebel 
States,  or  upon  the  theory  of  the  war  power  of  the 
government,  —  we  find  sufficient  reason  and  justifi 
cation  for  what  we  propose.  And  I  implore  you 


RECONSTRUCTION:  ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          389 

not  to  allow  your  minds  to  be  diverted  from  the 
conclusion  which  we  have  thus  reached,  nor  your 
judgments  to  be  biased  by  the  expectation  or 
apprehension  that  it  is  my  purpose,  upon  this 
foundation,  to  demand  justice  for  the  negro  race. 
I  assume  not  too  much,  when  I  say  that  you  all, 
and,  indeed,  all  my  countrymen  of  the  loyal  States 
who  entertain  loyal  purposes,  would  accept  these 
conclusions  without  hesitation,  if  it  were  understood 
that  the  exercise  of  this  just  power  of  the  nation 
were  demanded  to  prevent  the  establishment  of  the 
office  of  Governor  in  a  single  family  perpetually,  or 
to  prevent  in  any  applicant  State  the  constitution 
of  an  order  of  nobility,  in  which  the  government 
of  the  State  should  be  vested  permanently.  If, 
then,  this  assumption  be  true,  your  objection  is  not 
to  the  claim  that  the  general  government  has  this 
power  of  scrutiny  and  exclusion,  but  to  the  subject- 
matter  or  the  manner  of  its  exercise.  It  remains 
for  me  to  satisfy  you,  if  I  may  be  able,  that  the 
exercise  of  this  power  in  the  interest  of  universal 
suffrage  in  the  South  is  more  important  to  the 
nation  than  would  be  its  exercise  for  the  exclusion 
of  the  principle  of  hereditary  right  in  public  office 
in  any  or  all  of  the  applicant  States. 

In  passing,  permit  me  to  say  that  there  are  four 
methods  or  forms  of  government  which  might  be 
established  in  the  rebellious  States :  first,  military 
governments,  responsible  to  the  executive  •  of  the 
country  ;  secondly,  territorial  governments,  in 
which  a  law  of  Congress  should  define  and  pre 
scribe  the  rights  of  the  people  in  reference  to 
suffrage,  with  the  power  lodged  in  the  President 


390  EECONSTRUCTION  :    ITS  TRUE  BASIS. 

and  Senate  to  appoint  the  Governor,  Secretary  of 
State,  District-Attorney,  and  perhaps  some  other 
officers ;  thirdly,  to  recognize  these  States  as 
States  in  the  American  nation,  and  this  without 
any  inquiry  and  with  their  old  constitutions ;  and, 
fourthly,  by  treating  the  people  of  these  eleven 
States  as  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  general 
government,  but  without  institutions  of  any  sort, 
permit  them  to  frame  governments  and  apply  for 
admission  to  the  Union.  A  military  government, 
being  irresponsible,  expensive,  and,  for  the  most 
part,  tyrannical,  is  unacceptable  to  the  American 
people.  It  can  be  continued  for  a  short  period  of 
time  only,  but  ere  long  it  would  be  compelled  to 
give  place  to  another  form.  Probably,  with  refer 
ence  to  some  of  the  States,  as  South  Carolina  and 
Florida,  a  territorial  government  would  be  best 
adapted  to  the  existing  condition  of  things.  In 
Arkansas,  Tennessee,  and  Louisiana,  there  is  possi 
bly  so  large  a  loyal  sentiment,  that,  if  the  colored 
people  were  allowed  the  right  of  suffrage,  those 
States  might  be  safely  restored  to  their  ancient 
relations  to  the  Union.  It  therefore  follows,  as  the 
practical  result,  that  it  will  be  necessary  to  adopt 
different  lines  of  policy  for  different  States. 

But  I  wish  you  to  consider  with  me  the  effect  of 
permitting  these  eleven  States  to  act  as  though 
they  were  still  States  within  the  Union.  I  believe 
there  is  one  consideration  which  will  control  all 
classes  of  men  in  this  country,  without  regard  to 
their  opinions  concerning  the  negro ;  one  consider 
ation  which  will  finally  control  in  resisting  the 
recognition  of  those  States  except  upon  the  basis 


RECONSTRUCTION:   ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          391 

of  universal  suffrage.  I  refer  to  the  subject  of 
representation  in  the  lower  House  of  Congress.  I 
have  observed,  within  a  few  days,  that  a  leading 
New- York  journal  has  made  the  remark  that 
the  friends  of  negro  suffrage  were  too  fast  in 
conceding  to  the  rebellious  States  the  right  of 
representation  for  the  four  million  of  colored  peo 
ple.  Gentlemen,  the  fact  is,  we  are  neither  too 
fast  nor  too  slow.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  question.  The  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  in  its  first  article,  second  section,  and  third 
paragraph,  has  settled  this  matter.  The  words  are 
these :  — 

"  Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  apportioned 
among  the  several  States  which  may  be  included  within 
this  Union,  according  to  their  respective  numbers,  which 
shall  be  determined  by  adding  to  the  whole  number  of  free 
persons,  including  those  bound  to  service  for  a  term  of 
years  and  excluding  Indians  not  taxed,  three-fifths  of  all 
other  persons." 

If  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  is  to  stand, 
these  four  million  of  heretofore  slaves  are  to  be 
free.  They  reside  in  the  fifteen  old  slave  States. 
These  States  are  to  have  political  power  in  Congress, 
not  only  according  to  the  number  of  white  persons 
within  their  limits,  but  according  to  the  number  of 
free  persons,  black  as  well  as  white.  What  is  the 
result?  To-day,  upon  the  census  of  1860,  under 
the  three-fifths  rule,  there  are  nineteen  seats  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  which  may  be  filled  by 
men  whose  constituency,  if  they  were  voters,  would 
be  negroes  of  the  South.  In  1870,  there  will  be  a 


392  RECONSTRUCTION  :    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

new  census,  and  a  new  apportionment  of  political 
power.  The  South  will  take  political  power  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  according  to  its  combined 
white  and  colored  population.  I  have  made  an 
estimate,  which  is  probably  not  far  from  what  will 
prove  to  be  true  in  1870.  There  will  be  about  four 
and  a  half  million  of  colored  people  in  the  old  slave 
States  ;  there  will  be  about  .nine  million  of  white 
people  in  the  old  slave  States ;  and  there  will  be 
about  twenty-two  million  of  people  in  the  free 
States,  —  making  thirty-five  and  a  half  million  in 
all.  Upon  the  constitutional  basis,  political  power 
will  be  apportioned,  in  1870,  in  this  wise :  To  the 
four  and  a  half  million  of  negroes  in  the  South, 
thirty  Representatives ;  to  the  nine  million  white 
people  in  the  South,  sixty  Representatives,  —  ninety 
Representatives  from  the  South.  To  the  twenty- 
two  million  of  people  in  the  North,  one  hundred 
and  forty-four  Representatives  in  Congress.  Now, 
what  is  the  inevitable  result  of  the  doctrine  that 
these  eleven  rebellious  States  are  States  in  the 
Union,  and  have  a  right  to  be  represented  as 
States  ?  It  is  this  :  that  the  nine  million  of  white 
people  in  the  South  are  to  do  all  the  voting  in  the 
fifteen  old  slave  States ;  and  when  you  consider 
that  the  war  in  the  South  has  proved  pretty  nearly 
a  war  of  extermination  of  all  the  men  between 
twenty  and  forty-five  years  of  age,  and  that  the 
proportion  of  women  and  children  is  vastly  greater 
than  the  natural  proportion  of  women  and  children 
to  adult  males  in  any  community  that  has  not  been 
ravaged  by  the  fires  of  war,  you  will  understand 
that  the  number  of  voters  among  those  nine  million 


RECONSTRUCTION  :    ITS   TRUE   BASIS.  393 

of  people  will  be  but  a  small  proportion  of  the 
whole.  These  white  voters  of  the  South  are  to 
elect  ninety  Representatives  to  Congress.  And  who 
are  the  white  men  of  the  South  ?  They  are  the 
men  who  have  been  in  arms  against  the  republic 
and  against  the  soldiers  of  the  republic.  They  are 
of  a  race  which  through  two  centuries  has  been 
contaminated  by  the  vilest  crime,  the  crime  of 
slavery,  until  the  whole  public  sentiment  of  the 
South  has  become  debauched,  until  it  has  given  birth 
to  conspiracies,  for  the  perpetration  of  the  crimes 
of  arson,  of  murder,  of  treason,  of  assassination, 
in  all  their  hideous  and  unnamable  forms, —  such 
crimes  as  could  not  have  been  committed,  or  even 
contemplated,  in  any  other  country,  or  by  any  other 
people.  It  is  out  of  the  institution  of  slavery  that 
there  came  the  infamous  decree  by  which  sixty 
thousand  of  the  soldiers  of  the  republic  were 
starved  in  the  prisons  and  pens  of  the  South  ;  and 
will  the  people  of  this  country,  if  they  have  a 
prejudice  against  the  negro  race  such  as  human 
beings  never  felt  toward  any  of  the  animate  cre 
ation,  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  until  now, — 
will  the  people  of  this  country,  if  they  have  such  a 
prejudice  even,  exclude  the  negroes  from  the  ballot- 
box,  and  allow  it  to  be  controlled  by  these  nine 
million,  or  the  representatives  of  these  nine  million, 
of  white  people  in  the  South  ?  Under  all  circum 
stances,  a  majority,  a  confessed  majority  of  the 
white  people  of  the  South,  have  shown  themselves 
the  enemies  of  this  country ;  the  loyalists  among 
them,  the  men  who  have  stood  by  the  old  flag, 
have  been  few,  "  like  angel  visits."  On  the  other 


894  RECONSTRUCTION:    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

hand,  the  black  man,  despised,  down-trodden,  with 
no  reason  to  cheer  or  bless  the  flag  of  the  republic, 
which  to  him,  from  the  foundation  of  the  govern 
ment  until  the  signal  shot  upon  Fort  Sumter,  had 
been  only  the  ensign  of  oppression,  with  no  remi 
niscences  or  traditions  in  its  behalf,  has  proved 
true  to  the  country,  has  led  and  guided  and 
cheered  the  soldier,  has  enlisted  in  the  armies  of 
the  republic,  has  fought  for  the  integrity  of  the 
nation  and  the  safety  of  freedom ;  and  can  it  be, 
can  it  be,  in  the  heart  of  any  man  of  the  twenty 
million  of  inhabitants  in  the  North,  with  an  ingrati 
tude  unexampled  save  in  the  instance  of  Judas 
Iscariot,  now  to  consign  these  people,  their  race, 
and  their  posterity  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  men 
who  instituted  Libby  Prison  and  Andersonville, 
who  sent  to  the  islands  of  the  ocean  for  the  pesti 
lence  with  which  they  hoped  to  blast  the  cities  of 
the  North,  who  instituted  arson  as  a  plan,  and 
finally  closed  their  career  of  systematic  and  organ 
ized  crime  by  the  assassination  of  the  President  of 
the  republic  ?  Do  you  propose  to  allow  these 
people  to  send  ninety  Representatives  into  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States,  when,  according  to 
numbers,  they  would  be  entitled  to  but  sixty? 
Upon  the  basis  of  thirty-five  and  a  half  million  of 
people,  a  constituency  would  consist  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  inhabitants ;  and,  the  number  of 
members  of  the  House  being  limited  by  law  to  two 
hundred  and  thirty-four,  the  white  voters  of  the 
South  would  take  sixty  members  in  their  own  right, 
and  thirty  more  upon  the  basis  of  the  negro  popu 
lation, —  giving  them  ninety  votes.  They  would 


RECONSTRUCTION:   ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          395 

then  lack  but  twenty-eight  votes  of  a  majority  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  —  twenty-eight  votes 
which  New  York  alone  could  give,  which  two  of 
three  other  States  in  a  moment  of  disaffection 
might  give.  And  what  is  the  result,  or  at  least  the 
possible  danger  ?  The  government  of  this  country 
is  in  the  hands  of  rebels.  Will  not  the  men  inter 
ested  in  public  securities  look  to  it  that  no  such 
exigency  arise  ?  We  have  issued  two  and  a  half 
thousand  million  of  public  securities,  the  value  of 
which  depends  entirely  upon  the  good  faith  of  the 
people  of  this  country.  If  you  put  the  power  into 
the  hands  of  these  rebels,  one  of  two  things  is  sure 
to  happen,  —  either  that  the  rebel  debt  will  be 
foisted  upon  the  national  government,  or  the  na 
tional  debt  will  be  repudiated.  And  more  than 
that:  if  these  nine  million  of  people  in  the  South 
are  to  elect  ninety  Representatives,  they  will  elect 
one  for  every  one  hundred  thousand  white  persons 
represented  by  the  voting  population ;  while,  in  the 
North,  it  will  take  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
persons  to  constitute  the  basis  of  representation ; 
that  is,  two  voters  in  the  South  will  have  equal 
power  in  the  government  of  the  country  with  three 
voters  in  the  North.  I  submit  that  the  people  of 
the  North,  unless  they  are  infatuated,  so  that 
there  is  no  hope  of  their  being  able  to  comprehend 
the  means  necessary  for  their  own  salvation,  will 
reject  —  once,  twice,  thrice,  continually  reject  — 
every  proposition  which  recognizes  those  States  as 
States  of  the  American  Union.  One  of  two  things^ 
must  happen,  —  either  that  the  negro  shall  be 
allowed  to  vote,  or  that,  by  an  amendment  to  thej 


[ 


896  EECONSTRUCTION  :    ITS   TRtlE   BASIS. 

/Constitution,  the  representative  power  shall  be 
UDased  upon  voters  ;  and  if,  as  is  contended  by  those 
Who  oppose  negro  suffrage,  these  eleven  States  are 
States  in  the  Union,  as  it  requires  three-fourths  of 
the  States  to  make  an  amendment  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  as  the  eleven  States  are  more  than  one- 
fourth,  and  are  interested  in  the  maintenance  of 
the  present  condition  of  things,  there  is  no  hope 
of  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution.  Therefore, 
fellow-citizens  and  countrymen,  you  have  but  one 
path  before  you,  and,  thank  God !  it  is  the  path  of 
justice,  and  in  it  you  must  walk ;  and  that  path 
leads  you  to  contend  for  and  to  secure  to  the  negro 
the  right  of  suffrage  in  this  country. 

We  are  told  that  the  negroes  will  vote  with  their 
masters.  I  do  not  know  whether  they  will  or  not ; 
but  it  is  no  excuse  for  us,  in  denying  them  their 
rights,  to  say  that  they  will  vote  in  a  particular 
way.  If  they  have  the  right  to  vote,  we  are  not  to 
trample  that  right  under  our  feet,  because  we  infer 
that  they  will  hereafter  exercise  it  in  some  way 
disagreeable  to  us.  But  the  same  persons  told  us, 
in  1861  and  1862,  that,  if  we  put  arms  in  the  hands 
of  the  negroes,  they  would  fight  on  the  side  of 
their  masters.  Was  that  prediction  verified  ?  By 
no  means.  And  neither  will  this  prediction  be 
verified,  unless  the  spirit  of  the  masters  is  changed, 
and  they  vote  on  the  side  of  this  government. 

It  is  well  enough,  also,  for  us  to  consider  the  sub 
ject  of  voting  with  reference  to  the  negroes  of  the 
South.  We  have  a  constitutional  provision  in  Massa 
chusetts,  that  no  man  shall  vote  unless  he  can  read 
the  Constitution,  and  write  his  own  name,  —  a  very 


RECONSTRUCTION:   ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          397 

proper  provision ;  but  consider  that  it  was  instituted 
with  reference  to  men  about  whose  loyalty  there 
was  no  question,  but  only  this  question  existed, 
as  to  whether  they  *were  competent  to  judge  of  the 
administration  of  public  affairs.  In  the  ordinary 
course  of  things,  it  is  necessary  that  men  should  be 
able  to  read  and  write,  in  order  to  decide  intelli 
gently  upon  questions  of  public  policy.  We  d<y) 
not,  to-day,  ask  suffrage  for  the  negroes  because^ 
they  are  competent  to  judge  of  questions  of  public 
policy;  but  we  ask  for  suffrage  for  them  because 
they  are  in  fkvor  of  this  government,  and  the  white 
people  of  the  South  are  against  it.  That  is  an 
issue  already  made  up.  Parties  have  taken  their 
stand.  The  whites,  by  a  majority,  are  on  one  side  ; 
the  blacks,  unanimously,  are  on  the  other.  They  < 
understand  that  question,  and  that  is  the  vital  quesy 
tion  to  us.  It  is  not  whether,  in  South  Carolina, 
judges  shall  be  elected  by  the  people  or  appointed 
by  the  Governor:  that  question  very  likely  would 
be  better  solved  by  men  who  could  read  and  write. 
But  the  question  in  which  we  are  concerned  is 
not  a  question  of  internal  policy,  not  a  question  of 
local  or  of  State  administration ;  but  the  question 
is,  "  Shall  this  government  exist  ? "  We  know 
that  the  negro  is  in  favor  of  its  existence,  and 
therefore,  for  all  the  purposes  of  voting,  whether 
he  can  read  and  write  or  not,  he  is  a  safe  depositary 
of  power;  and  therefore  I  am  in  favor  of  allowing 
him  to  vote,  without  going  into  any  inquiry  whether 
he  can  read  and  write,  because  his  power  at  the 
ballot-box  is  now  essential  to  us,  just  exactly  as 
his  power  in  the  field  with  the  bayonet  was  essen- 


398  RECONSTRUCTION:    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

tial  to  us  during  the  war.  In  this  country,  there 
are  but  two  means  of  exercising  power.  One  is  by 
the  bayonet,  in  time  of  war  ;  the  other  is  by  the 
ballot,  in  time  of  peace.  We  have  taken  the  bayo 
net,  in  time  of  war,  out  of  the  hands  of  our  rebel 
enemies.  What  are  we  invited  to  do  ?  To  put  the 
ballot,  which  is  the  instrument  of  power  in  time  of 
peace,  into  the  hands  of  our  enemies,  and  deprive 
our  friends  of  the  privilege  of  exercising  that 
power.  Was  there  ever  any  infatuation  equal  to 
this  ?  If  these  four  million  who  have  been  loyal 
to  the  flag  and  to  the  Union  had  been  Germans  in 
the  South,  instead  of  negroes,  not  a  man  would 
have  raised  the  question  whether  these  loyal  Ger 
mans,  upon  the  restoration  of  the  government, 
should  be  allowed  to  vote.  Every  man,  with  one 
.voice,  with  one  acclaim,  would  have  said,  "They, 
of  course,  are  to  vote.  The  only  question  remain 
ing  is,  whether  the  rebels  who  have  been  in  arms 
against  this  government  are  to  be  permitted  to  vote 
or  not."  You  thus  see,  my  friends,  how  far  the 
country  has  been  drawn  aside  from  the  true  ques 
tion  at  issue  by  that  ancient  prejudice,  originating 
in  slavery,  and  which  has  been  fostered,  imbittered, 
and  spread  by  the  influence  of  slavery  throughout 
this  country.  You  are  not  willing  to  allow  to  a  pa 
triot  under  a  black  skin  that  which  you  would  readily 
concede  to  a  patriot  under  a  white  skin.  Are  the 
people  of  this  country  more  disposed  to  put  power 
into  the  hands  of  rebels  because  they  are  white, 
.than  into  the  hands  of  patriots  who  happen  to  be 
black? 

There  are  some  over-sensitive  persons  who  are 


RECONSTRUCTION:   ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          399 

rather  reluctant  to  give  suffrage  to  the  negroes, 
because  they  fear  it  will  irritate  the  white  people  of 
the  South.  "Well,  my  friends,  I  am  for  conciliation. 
I  see  already  that  very  few  men  in  the  South  are 
be  punished.  Nobody  among  the  whites  is  to 
disfranchised.  Of  all  the  men  who  are  suffered  to 
live  and  to  remain  in  the  South, — white  people,  I 
mean,  —  all  will  enjoy  the  elective  franchise  j  and* 
I  have  already  reached  the  conclusion,  that  there 
are  but  two  men  who  are  in  any  danger  of  suffer 
ing  the  penalty  of  the  law  for  the  crime  of  treason. 
They  are  Davis  and  Lee.  I  may  turn  aside  for  a 
single  moment  to  say  here,  what  I  think  will  find 
a  response  in  the  judgment  of  the  country,  that 
those  two  men,  above  all  others,  deserve  to  pay  the 
highest  forfeit  ever  exacted  by  human  tribunals 
from  those  who  have  violated  human  law.  There 
were  many  leaders  in  the  rebellion.  The-  guilt  of 
those  men  is  inconceivable,  and  of  course  inexpress 
ible.  But  Davis  and  Lee,  by  a  peculiar  supremacy, 
were  the  leaders.  One  was  at  the  head  of  the  mili 
tary  and  the  other  at  the  head  of  the  civil  and 
military  power  of  the  so-called  Confederacy.  If 
we  select  these  and  execute  them,  it  will  be  a  warn 
ing  to  all  men,  in  all  time,  that  it  is  not  safe  to  be 
the  leaders  of  a  rebellion  against  this  government. 
Therefore,  by  their  execution,  you  take  all  the 
security  for  the  future  which  you  can  take.  If  you 
go  beyond  these  two  men,  I  know  not  where  you 
are  to  stop.  There  are  ten,  twenty,  fifty,  one  hun 
dred,  perhaps  one  thousand,  other  men  who  are 
equally  guilty,  each  with  the  other.  Inasmuch  as 
no  country  can  afford  to  exact  blood,  to  any  con- 


400  RECONSTRUCTION:    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

siderable  extent,  for  political  crimes,  we  should  do 
that  which  will  be  justified  upon  the  page  of  history, 
and  which  will  lead  to  all  the  practical  benefits 
which  can  result  from  the  punishment  of  any  num 
ber  of  traitors.  By  a  peculiar  pre-eminence,  these 
two  men  are  responsible  to  the  country  for  the 
slow  murder  of  our  soldiers  in  prison.  At  any 
moment,  Davis  or  Lee  could  have  put  an  end  to  this 
cruel  torture  and  murder  of  men,  through  months 
and  almost  years  of  suffering.  It  cannot  be  said, 
perhaps,  of  any  other  man  engaged  in  the  rebellion, 
that  it  was  in  his  power  to  have  suppressed  this 
systematic  murder;  and  therefore  they  are  pecu 
liarly  responsible  to  the  army  of  the  republic,  to  the 
country,  and  to  mankind,  for  this  great  crime!  It 
is  only  second  in  turpitude  to  that  of  Mithridates, 
King  of  Pontus,  who  seized  a  Roman  proconsul, 
carried  him  to  the  city  of  Pergamus,  and  ordered 
meked  gold  to  be  poured  down  his  throat.  At  the 
same  time,  he  sent  a  letter  to  all  the  cities  and  prov 
inces  of  his  kingdom,  directing  his  officers  to  seize 
all  persons  owing  allegiance  to  Rome,  and  execute 
them  on  a  day  named.  Under  this  order,  a  hun 
dred  and  fifty  thousand  men,  women,  and  children 
were  murdered. 

Cicero  referred  to  this  crime,  after  the  lapse  of 
more  than  twenty  years,  in  his  speech,  —  the  great 
est,  perhaps,  of  his  speeches,  —  his  speech  for  the 
Manilian  law,  in  which  he  urged  the  appointment 
of  Pompey  to  the  supreme  command  of  the  army 
as  the  only  means  by  which  this  crime  and  offence 
to  Rome  might  be  avenged,  in  common  with  other 
crimes  and  wrongs  which  the  state  had  suffered  at 
the  hands  of  its  enemies. 


RECONSTRUCTION:   ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          401 

But,  however  heinous  the  crime  of  the  rebels  in 
the  treatment  of  prisoners,  and  however  respon 
sible  the  Southern  people  are  for  the  war  and  its 
woes,  there  will  be  no  concfign  punishment  except 
what  is  inflicted  upon  these  two  men ;  possibly 
even  they  may  escape :  but  there  is  one  punish 
ment  which  we  can  carry  home  to  every  rebel  in 
the  South.  He  has  been  afraid  of  negro  equalitv^ 
The  ballot  is,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  symbol  of 
equality.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  does 
not  mean  that  "  all  men  are  created  equal "  in 
every  respect,  but  that  no  man  is,  by  nature,  in  a 
state  of  political  subserviency  to  any  other  man. 
All  are  equal,  none  supreme.  I  know  of  no 
punishment  which  would  be  so  universally  effica 
cious  throughout  the  rebel  States  as  to  put  into  the 
hand  of  the  negro  the  ballot,  that  at  the  ballot-box 
once  a  year,  or  once  in  two  years,  or  once  in  four 
years,  he  may  stand  the  equal  of  his  former  master. 
This  is  -a  punishment  that  will  go  home  to 
rebel  in  the  eleven  rebellious  States. 

By  the  emancipation  proclamation,  we  have  taken 
the  initiatory  steps  towards  the  freedom  of  the 
negro ;  but  how  are  liberties  secured  ?  Are  there 
laboring  men  here  to-day  ?  What  security  have  they 
for  the  integrity  of  their  families  ?  What  security 
have  they  for  the  benefit  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  ? 
What  security  have  they  for  the  education  of  their 
children  at  the  public  expense  ?  What  security 
have  they  that  their  testimony  shall  be  taken  in  a 
court  of  justice  ?  Their  security  is  in  the  ballot. 
We  say  that  men  possess  certain  "  natural,  essential, 
and  unalienable  rights."  How  are  those  rights  to 
26 


402  RECONSTRUCTION:    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

be  defended?  Either  by  the  bayonet  or  by  the 
ballot.  If  the  negroes  are  to  protect  themselves 
in  their  rights,  it  is  for  the  country  to  give  them 
the  means,  by  giving  £hem  the  ballot.  And  it  is 
not  less  in  favor  of  the  South  than  of  the  whole 
country  that  we  advocate  negro  suffrage.  We  of 
Massachusetts  remember  the  difficulties  in  Rhode 
Island,  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  when 
men  of  our  own  race,  having  the  political  power  of 
the  State  in  their  own  hands  exclusively,  refused 
to  recognize  the  rights  of  other  men  of  the  same 
race,  the  same  blood,  equally  qualified  with  them 
selves,  until  the  concession  was  extorted  from  them 
by  revolution ;  and  do  you  expect  that  the  white 
men  of  the  South,  if  you  allow  them  to  institute 
governments  with  political  power  in  their  own 
hands  exclusively,  will  ever  concede  it  to  the  ne 
groes,  until  the  negroes  extort  it  from  them  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet?  These  negroes  are  four 
million  to-day.  They  will  increase  through  decades 
and  centuries  until  they  are  eight,  ten,  twenty  mil 
lion  ;  and,  if  you  do  not  give  them  the  right  of  suf 
frage  now,  at  some  future  time  they  or  their 
posterity  will  demand  it,  and  secure  it  by  force. 
Instead,  therefore,  of  being  the  enemies  of  the 
South,  when  we  demand  negro  suffrage,  we  are  its 
real  friends,  because  we  take  security  in  their  behalf, 
at  this  early  day,  that  hereafter  they  shall  be  saved 
from  intestine  commotion,  from  civil  and  social 
wars. 

Perversion  and  misrepresentation  are  powerless, 
and  argument  thus  far  has  not  been  heard,  in 
behalf  of  the  monstrous  proposition  that  the  North 


RECONSTRUCTION:    ITS   TRUE   BASIS.  403 

should  consent  to  such  a  reconstruction  of  this 
government  as  will  guarantee  perpetually  to  two 
white  men  in  the  South  the  political  power  that  is 
accorded  to  three  white  men  in  the  North.  Who 
are  they,  and  what  are  they,  if  they  exist  at  all 
within  the  limits  of  the  loyal  States,  who  are  pre 
pared  to  maintain  the  doctrine  that  Virginia, 
South  Carolina,  Florida,  and  Texas  have  the  same 
immediate  and  indisputable  right  of  representation 
as  is  enjoyed  by  New  York,  Illinois,  Pennsylvania, 
and  California  ?  That  they  have  not  this  right,  is 
conceded  by  all,  or  by  nearly  all,  among  us.  No 
one  is  prepared  to  accept  South  Carolina  with  her 
old  constitution.  The  veriest  stickler  for  State 
rights  demands  some  alteration.  This  demand, 
however  slight  it  may  seem  in  its  practical  applica 
tion,  is  the  equivalent  in  principle  of  the  demand  I 
make.  South  Carolina  is  in  the  Union  with  her 
Constitution  of  1860,  or,  as  a  political  organization 
known  as  a  State,  she  is  not  in  the  Union  at  all ; 
and,  if  she  is  not  in  the  Union  as  a  State,  her  appli 
cation  for  admission  may  be  rejected  until  she 
appears  with  a  frame  of  government  in  substantial 
harmony  with  the  policy  of  the  nation.  You  must 
be  just  to  the  negro.  When  you  invited  him  to 
assume  the  uniform  of  the  army  of  the  republic, 
when  you  put  the  musket  into  his  hand,  when  you 
asked  him  to  jeopard,  and,  if  need  be,  to  sacrifice, 
his  life  in  defence  of  the  country,  you  did  in  fact, 
if  not  in  terms,  agree,  that,  if  the  cause  —  his  cause 
as  well  as  your  own  —  was  successful,  he  should 
have  the  same  part  in  the  government  as  your 
selves  ;  and  therefore  you  cannot,  without  the 


404  RECONSTRUCTION:    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

basest  ingratitude,  now  reject  him.  I  am  com 
pelled  to  declare  to  you,  my  friends,  in  all  sincerity, 
heinous  as  are  the  crimes  of  these  Southern  men, 
infamous  as  they  will  be  upon  the  page  of  history, 
that  if  the  people  of  the  North,  now  that  they  have 
acquired  liberty  •  for  themselves,  now  that  they 
have  secured  the  restoration  of  the  Union  by  the 
services  and  sacrifices  of  the  negro  in  common 
with  their  own  services  and  their  own  sacrifices, 
should  surrender  him,  bound  hand  and  foot,  as  he 
will  be  if  he  does  not  enjoy  the  right  of  suffrage, 
into  the  custody  of  his  enemies,  made  doubly  fero 
cious  by  the  events  of  this  war,  and  into  the  cus 
tody  of  your  enemies  also,  your  position  upon  the 
page  of  history,  and  in  the  judgment  of  posterity, 
will  be  only  less  infamous  than  theirs.  I  know 
of  no  excuse  that  we  can  offer  to  ourselves,  I 
know  of  no  excuse  that  we  can  offer  to  this  gener 
ation  in  other  countries,  I  know  of  no  excuse 
that  we  can  offer  to  mankind  in  the  coming  ages, 
if,  after  having  accepted  the  services  and  the 
blood  of  these  men  in  defence  of  the  flag,  of  liberty, 
and  of  the  Union,  we  turn  and  conspire  with  these 
their  ancient  oppressors,  and  trample  our  faithful 
allies  in  the  dust.  Let  it  not  be  that  this  infamy  is 
reserved  for  the  people  of  this  country.  Of  all  the 
woes  of  which  we  have  drunk  through  these  four 
years,  of  all  the  instances  of  degradation  which 
have  been  treasured  up  in  the  long  annals  of  man 
kind,  I  know  of  none  which  will  compare  with  the 
woe  and  the  degradation  of  a  free  people,  who, 
having  secured  their  own  liberties  by  the  blood  of 
their  fellow-men,  with  base  ingratitude  offered  their 


RECONSTRUCTION:  ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          405 

allies  to  the  common  enemy,  —  to  the  enemy  of  the 
country,  of  liberty,  and  of  mankind. 

I  have  thus,  gentlemen,  attempted  to  demon 
strate  the  existence  of  sufficient  and  constitutional 
power  in  the  government  to  enable  Congress  to 
hold  the  people  of  the  rebellious  districts  under  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  national  authority,  while  they 
are  excluded  from  any  voice  in  the  public  councils, 
until  they  frame  State  governments  which  are 
truly  republican  in  form,  and  until  evidence  is 
furnished  that  the  public  sentiment  of  each  pro 
posed  State  is  so  far  loyal  as  to  justify  the  expecta 
tion  that  its  general  policy  will  accord  with  the 
general  policy  of  the  country ;  and  this  without 
claiming  to  interfere,  and  without  interfering,  with 
the  institutions  of  a  State. 

I  have  also  sought  to  demonstrate  that  the  exer 
cise  of  this  power  is  necessary  for  the  security  of 
the  loyal  people,  the  preservation  of  the  public 
credit,  as  it  is  connected  with  and  dependent  upon 
a  constant  exhibition  of  good  faith,  by  the  people 
and  the  public  authorities.  Moreover,  you  cannot 
fail  to  be  influenced  by  the  plain  statement,  that, 
under  the  Constitution,  you  must  secure  the  elective 
franchise  to  the  negro,  or  surrender  your  own 
equal  right  in  the  government  of  the  country ;  and, 
finally,  you  are  not  insensible  to  the  obligations 
resting  upon  you  to  secure  to  all  men  the  means 
of  protecting  those  rights  of  person  and  property 
which  are  the  evidences  of  freedom  and  its  con 
stant  support.  This  policy  furnishes  at  once  secu 
rity  to  the  country,  equality  to  the  whites  of  all 
sections,  justice  to  the  negro,  universal  punishment 


406  RECONSTRUCTION  :    ITS   TRUE   BASIS. 

of  the  rebels,  the  only  efficient  means  of  stimulat 
ing  the  industry  and  developing  the  resources  of 
the  South,  and,  at  last,  adequate  and  permanent 
protection  against  civil  and  social  feuds  and  wars  in 
all  portions  of  the  country  where  the  two  races  are 
nearly  equal  in  numbers  or  strength. 

I  have  assumed  also  that  the  instances  of  pardon 
of  rebels  by  the  President  will  be  increased,  and 
that  in  peace  we  shall  abandon  the  policy  which 
was  inaugurated  in  time  of  war,  and  adapted  to  a 
time  of  war,  of  confiscating  the  property  of  rebels 
who  are  not  distinguished  by  any  special  criminal 
ity  from  their  associates  in  treason.  Whether  you 
indict  and  try  persons  or  confiscate  their  property, 
the  number  of  the  guilty  is  so  great,  that  many 
necessarily  escape.  During  the  war,  we  seized  the 
property  of  individual  enemies,  as  a  means  of 
diminishing  the  power  of  those  in  arms  against  us. 
The  reason  no  longer  remains,  and  it  will  probably 
be  thought  wise  to  modify  our  legislation  so  as  to 
relieve  the  mass  of  Southern  people  from  all  appre 
hension.  So,  too,  we  can  have  no  security  for  the 
loyalty  of  a  State,  until  a  clear  majority  of  its  pop 
ulation  are  known  to  be  worthy  of  trust.  When 
ever  a  State  is  restored  to  the  Union,  the  loyal 
sentiment  should  be  sufficiently  powerful  to  permit 
those  who  have  been  disloyal  to  exercise  the  elec 
tive  franchise ;  otherwise  you  nourish  alienation, 
and  encourage  the  elements  of  treason  and  war. 
Our  policy  towards  the  mass  of  our  enemies  must 
be  liberal.  Restore  to  them,  with  as  little  delay  as 
possible,  all  the  personal,  civil,  and  political  rights 
which  they  enjoyed  previous  to  the  rebellion. 


RECONSTRUCTION:  ITS  TRUE  BASIS.          407 

With  such  an  exhibition  of  magnanimity  towards 
those  who  have  been  our  enemies,  not  even  they 
can  justly  complain  when  we  demand  the  elective 
franchise  for  those  who  have  been  our  friends. 
Thus  does  this  policy  appear  to  be  wise  and  con 
servative  as  a  national  policy ;  thus  is  it  necessary 
to  ourselves ;  thus  is  it  just  to  our  friends ;  thus  is 
it  magnanimous  to  our  enemies. 


408 


EQUAL    SUFFRAGE. 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  NATIONAL  EQUAL  SUFFRAGE 
ASSOCIATION  OF  WASHINGTON,  DECEMBER,   1866. 

I  HOPE,  ladies  and   gentlemen,  not   to   trouble 
you  at  great  length ;  at  least,  to  leave  you  time 
and  patience  to  listen  to  what  will  be  said  by  our 
friend  who  will  speak  after  I  have  closed. 

I  understand  that  to-day  there  has  been  a  vote 
taken  in  this  city,  but  I  know  not  whether  in  the 
neighboring  city  of  Georgetown,  on  the  question 
whether  the  colored  people  shall  enjoy  the  right  of 
suffrage  in  this  district.  I  am  always  disposed  to 
listen  to  the  will  of  the  people,  to  consult  their  judg 
ments  ;  and,  even  in  matters  of  grave  legislation,  I 
would  to  some  extent  be  guided  by  their  prejudices. 
I  think,  however,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  by 
those  who  dwell  here  permanently  or  for  temporary 
purposes,  that  this  district  was  set  apart  as  the  seat 
of  government,  and  made  by  the  Constitution  sub 
ject  to  the  exclusive  control  of  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States.  Whether  or  not  all  men  shall  vote 
is  a  question  which  does  not  even  as  much  con 
cern  those  who  live  in  this  city  as  it  does  those  whom 
I  immediately  represent ;  and  that,  in  its  decision, 
those  who  represent  the  country  are  very  likely  to 
act  upon  the  opinions  which  they  understand  are 
entertained  by  the  country.  Furthermore,  the  opin- 


EQUAL   SUFFRAGE.  409 

ions  expressed  here  are  no  guide,  or  even  counsel 
or  suggestion,  to  those  who  are  intrusted  with 
the  administration  of  public  affairs.  The  people 
hold,  first  of  ally  in  concluding  the  contest  we  have 
carried  on  for  four  years  at  such  great  sacrifice, 
that  the  only  proper  consummation  would  be  the 
recognition  of  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law. 
It  is  here,  at  the  capital  of  the  nation,  that  the  ex 
ample  should  be  set  of  that  just  recognition  of  all 
races  of  men,  which  is  set  forth  in  our  Declaration 
of  Independence,  as  well  as  in  that  great  charter  of 
human  rights  on  which  Christian  civilization  for 
eighteen  hundred  years  has  depended. 

I  mean  to-night  to  speak  rather  generally  of  the 
right  of  suffrage. 

If  I  shall  occupy  as  much  time  as  I  anticipate  on 
that  question,  I  cannot  even  apply  the  propositions, 
I  shall  attempt  to  lay  down,  to  the  existing  affairs 
of  the  country. 

It  is  said  that  the  right  of  suffrage  is  not  a  natu 
ral  right. 

Possibly  you  will  think,  on  consideration,  it  is  of 
very  little  importance  whether  it  is  a  natural  right 
of  not. 

If  it  is  not  a  natural  right,  then  I  take  it  that  it 
is  not  in  any  sense  more  the  right  of  a  white  man 
than  of  a  black  man.  And  if  it  is  a  natural  right, 
then  it  is  equally  the  right  of  the  black  man  as  of 
the  white  man. 

To  the  argument  it  is  entirely  immaterial  whether 
it  is  a  natural  right  or  not. 

If  we  consider  merely  those  natural  rights  which 
are  personal,  they  are  hardly  more  than  the  right 


410  EQUAL   SUFFRAGE. 

to  breathe,  the  right  to  exist,  the  right  of  locomo 
tion  ;  but  there  are  other  rights  which  may  not  be 
natural,  —  personal  rights,  which  are  not  less  im 
portant  than  those  which  are  called  natural  rights. 
The  right  of  suffrage  may  not  be  a  natural  right  in 
the  sense  of  a  personal  right,  but  I  think  it  is  a 
natural  social  right  the  moment  that  society  exists  ; 
and  the  existence  of  society  is  in  obedience  to  natu 
ral  law,  from  which  no  portion  of  the  human  race, 
not  even  barbarous  nations,  not  even  wandering 
tribes,  not  even  nomads  of  the  desert,  have  ever 
been  able  to  escape.  I  think  you  must  agree,  on 
reflection,  that,  whether  the  right  of  suffrage  be  a 
natural  right  or  not,  it  is  a  right  which  no  man  who 
has  once  enjoyed  it  will  ever  willingly  yield  up.  He 
will  rather  sacrifice  his  own  life,  he  will  sacrifice  his 
property,  he  will  sacrifice  possibly  every  thing  he 
holds  dear  except  the  existence  of  his  family ;  and, 
if  this  right  be  such  to  us  who  have  enjoyed  it,  it  is 
only  on  the  gravest  considerations,  and  for  the  most 
urgent  reasons,  we  are  justified  in  withholding  it 
from  others.  I  think,  if  you  will  consider  society, 
you  must  agree,  that  it  is  not  the  individual  man, 
not  the  woman,  not  the  child,  that  is  the  element  or 
unit  of  society  ;  but  it  is  the  family. 

I  start,  then,  with  the  proposition  that  the  family 
is  the  element  of  society,  the  unit  of  the  State,  and 
not  the  man,  or  the  woman,  or  the  child.  When  you 
consider  the  existence  of  the  family,  and  when 
you  consider  the  existence  of  more  families  than 
one,  you  have  then  a  guide  for  the  personal  rights, 
not  merely  of  the  head  of  the  family,  but  of  all  the 
members  of  the  family.  Consider  society  in  any 


EQUAL   SUFFRAGE.  411 

aspect  you  please,  and  it  is  perfectly  plain,  if  the 
family  be  an  element  of  society,  that,  in  all  the  cir 
cumstances  which  concern  the  fortune  and  welfare 
of  society,  the  family  has  the  right  of  judgment  and 
expression ;  and  that  this  right  is  not  due  to  the 
condition  of  the  members,  whether  they  are  of  one 
race,  of  one  color,  or  of  one  class :  it  is  the  common 
right  of  humanity,  wherever  society  exists.  Wher 
ever  the  family  relation  is  known  and  recognized, 
then,  on  all  questions  which  affect  the  fortunes  of 
individuals,  on  all  questions  which  affect  the  for 
tunes  of  the  family,  the  family  has  the  right  of  judg 
ment  and  the  right  to  express  that  judgment. 

When  I  say  the  element  of  society  and  the  unit 
of  the  State  is  the  family,  and  that  the  family  has 
the  right  of  judgment,  and  the  right  of  expressing 
that  judgment,  I  have  laid  the  foundation  for  the 
exercise  of  the  right  of  suffrage ;  for  every  thing 
to  which  suffrage  tends,  which  its  power  guards, 
which  its  authority  creates,  has  reference  to  the  pro 
tection  of  individuals  and  of  families,  in  their  rela 
tions,  in  their  property,  in  their  rights,  in  their 
liberties  of  every  sort.  There  must  be  an  expres 
sion,  and  a  mode  for  the  expression,  of  the  opinion 
of  the  family.  And  here,  possibly,  I  may  come  upon 
delicate  ground.  Nor  should  I  approach  this  partic 
ular  part  of  the  discussion,  if  it  were  not  often  said, 
if  you  allow  negroes  to  vote,  of  course  women  and 
children  ought  to  vote  also.  Well,  in  this  matter  of 
voting,  I  accept  the  logic  of  truth,  to  whatever  re 
sults  it  may  lead.  I  think  I  can  offer,  or  at  least  I 
shall  offer  the  reasons  which  are  satisfactory  to  my 
self,  why  both  women  and  children  should  not  vote. 


412  EQUAL   SUFFRAGE. 

First,  as  regards  children :  there  is  in  nature  —  and 
nature  teaches  us  the  truth  in  all  these  matters  — 
a  law  which  no  people  can  overcome,  —  that,  in  the 
existence  of  the  human  being,  there  is  a  period  of 
infancy,  of  minority,  of  incapacity  to  guard  and  con 
trol  affairs ;  but  there  is  a  period  also  when  this  mi 
nority  is  overcome  by  years,  by  discretion,  by  the 
attainment  of  majority  as  we  call  it,  —  that  is,  the 
period  of  life  when,  according  to  the  ordinary  course 
of  human  events,  the  individual  is  able  to  judge  for 
himself  of  those  matters  which  concern  him  per 
sonally,  and,  consequently,  in  reference  to  matters 
which  concern  his  fellow-men.  •  As  to  the  period 
when  minority  ceases,  the  law  must  necessarily  be 
arbitrary.  In  some  Grecian  States,  it  was  six 
teen  ;  with  us,  it  is  twenty-one.  It  is  immaterial 
where  the  limit  is  fixed,  so  you  admit  there  is  in 
nature  a  period  of  minority. 

As  regards  women,  the  policy  of  the  law,  accept 
ing  the  teachings  of  experience,  is  this :  that  in  the 
house,  in  the  family,  there  is  but  one  opinion. 
Stlch  is  the  general  fact.  It  is  not  the  opinion  of 
the  father,  of  the  husband,  merely ;  it  is  not  merely 
the  opinion  of  the  wife  and  mother ;  it  is  not  the 
opinion  of  the  children :  but  it  is  the  result  reached 
by  the  influence  of  the  domestic  life  of  the  family. 
It  is  a  result  reached  by  the  experience,  the  judg 
ment,  and  observation  of  all. 

Now,  then,  you  may  say  —  I  know  the  excep 
tions  exist  —  that  there  is  even  in  the  family  a 
difference  of  opinion  on  public  matters.  Very  well  ; 
be  it  so.  These  are  exceptional  cases.  The  wis 
dom  of  the  law,  doubtless,  is  this :  that  so  sacred 


EQUAL   SUFFRAGE,  413 

is  the  home,  so  to  be  respected  by  the  law  is  the 
family,  that,  wherever  a  difference  of  opinion  exists, 
there  should  be  no  means  for  the  expression  of  that 
opinion.  It  is  wise  policy  in  the  law  so  to  decree. 

If  there  be  but  one  opinion  in  the  family  as  a 
general  thing,  it  is  the  wise  policy  of  the  law,  as  the 
result  of  the  experience  of  all  ages,  that,  where  a 
difference  of  opinion  exists,  it  is  better  for  the  family 
that  there  should  be  no  mode  of  expressing  that 
difference.  Then  the  question  arises,  By  whom  shall 
the  opinion  of  the  family  be  expressed  ?  I  think  na 
ture  again  teaches  us,  that  the  man  who,  by  the  law 
of  nature  which  no  community  has  ever  been  able  to 
overcome,  is  the  defender  of  the  family,  whose  life  is 
to  be  jeoparded  in  its  behalf  if  circumstances  re 
quire  it,  is  that  member  of  the  family  who  is  to  give 
expression  to  the  judgment  of  the  family.  If  there 
be  but  one  opinion  in  the  family,  inasmuch  as  the  ob 
ject  of  voting  is  to  ascertain  its  judgment,  the  mul 
tiplication  of  votes,  by  allowing  women  and  children 
to  exercise  the  right  of  suffrage,  adds  nothing  to  the 
political  power  of  the  State,  any  more  than  it  would 
in  taxation,  if,  instead  of  assessing  the  tax  of  the 
family  upon  the  father,  you  assessed  the  same 
aggregate  upon  the  individual  members.  So,  if 
there  be  but  one  judgment  in  the  family,  it  needs 
but  one  voice  to  express  it. 

Next,  what  logical  results  follow  from  this  ?  It 
would  happen,  and  very  properly  happen,  if  we 
accept  the  logic,  that,  where  the  woman  is  left  as 
head  of  the  family,  she  should  have  a  voice  in  ex 
pressing  the  opinion  of  the  family  on  public  affairs. 
That  was  the  case  in  Hungary  during  some  portion 


414  EQUAL   SUFFRAGE. 

of  the  existence  of  that  nation,  and  certainly  there 
can  be  no  objection  to  it.  * 

Another  thing  would  happen :  those  men  who 
are  without  families  would  be  kept  from  the  ballot- 
box.  My  only  solution  of  this  difficulty  is,  that 
there  is  a  reasonable  presumption,  that,  at  some  time 
or  other,  they  are  to  become  the  heads  of  families, 
and  that  therefore  they  should  be  properly  attending 
to  their  political  duties  beforehand. 

There  are  two  other  classes  of  persons  excluded, 
—  paupers  and  criminals  ;  and  you  see  at  once  the 
reason  for  their  exclusion. 

When  you  have  proceeded  thus  far,  if  you  accept 
the  argument  which  I  have  submitted,  I  think  you 
see  that  it  is  difficult  to  go  beyond,  and  say  for 
what  reason  you  shall  exclude  the  head  of  a  family 
from  expressing  the  judgment  of  the  family  on  pub 
lic  affairs.  We  have  in  this  country,  as  you  know, 
excluded  four  million  of  people  who  are  colored 
and  of  African  descent.  They  have  been  absolutely 
excluded  in  the  slave  States,  where  they  were  held 
in  slavery,  and  very  generally  excluded  in  the  free 
States.  I  should  like  to  have  any  person,  just  at 
this  point,  offer  a  good  reason,  why,  now  that  this 
people  are  free,  are  made  a  part  of  society,  are  to  be 
protected  in  their  personal  rights,  they  should  be 
deprived  of  the  privilege  of  participating  in  the  gov 
ernment.  Is  color  a  reason  why  a  man  should  not 
participate  in  the  government  of  his  country  ?  Is 
race  a  reason  ?  We  have  received  from  abroad 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  men  ;  and  after 
they  have  remained  here,  according  to  the  judgment 
of  the  law,  a  sufficient  time  to  justify  the  inference 


EQUAL   SUFFRAGE.  415 

that  they  intend  to  make  this  country  their  home,  to 
support  and  defend  it,  we  accept  them  as  citizens, 
with  the  rights  of  citizens. 

Now,  when  we  have  amongst  us  three  or  four  mil 
lion  of  persons  native  born,  are  we  to  exclude  them 
from  all  participation  in  this  government  on  ac 
count  of  color  alone,  —  for  no  reason  except  color  ? 
I  suppose  those  who  object  to  their  enjoyment  of  the 
elective  franchise  would  say,  No,  it  is  not  on  ac 
count  of  color ;  but,  because  these  men  are  colored 
men,  we  infer  their  incapacity  to  exercise  properly 
the  elective  franchise.  But  what  inference  is  to  be 
drawn  from  that  fact  ?  A  pretty  large  part  of  the 
human  race  are  colored  people.  The  Chinese,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  islands  of  the  East  Indies  are  not 
white,  the  ancient  Scythians,  all  the  people  who 
lived  in  the  north  of  Africa  and  upon  the  coast  of 
the  Mediterranean,  were  colored  people. 

The  Pho3nicians,  who  not  only  navigated  the 
•  Arabian  Sea,  but  in  the  ante-historical  ages  passed 
round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  into  the  Indian  Ocean 
and  the  islands  of  the  Indian  Sea,  —  men  who  prob 
ably  visited  this  continent,  —  were  not  white  people. 
Therefore  you  can  infer  nothing  from  the  fact  that  a 
man  is  colored,  as  to  his  capacity. 

As  regards  the  three  or  four  million  of  colored 
people  on  this  continent,  when  we  consider  that  they 
have  been  in  servitude  during  many  generations, 
that  they  have  been  deprived  of  all  privileges,  even 
the  privilege  of  self-education,  nothing  whatever  is 
to  be  inferred  from  the  fact  of  their  color.  I  have 
observed  that  the  people  who  are  most  strenuous 
in  resisting  the  advancement  of  other  persons  are 


416  EQUAL   SUFFRAGE. 

those  who  apprehend,  indistinctly,  that,  if  those  other 
persons  are  permitted  opportunities  to  make  prog 
ress,  they  will  come  into  competition  with  them 
selves.  I  think  the  white  race  of  this  country,  if 
they  are  that  superior  race  they  claim  to  be,  ought 
certainly  to  be  willing  to  accept  the  contest  on  equal 
terms.  If  we  are  beaten,  if  the  negroes  make  more 
rapid  advancement  than  we  are  able  to  make,  I 
think  we  ouglft  gracefully  to  yield  the  superiority 
to  them.  The  suggestion  is  an  imputation  upon  the 
white  race ;  and  that  man  who  fears  the  elevation  of 
the  colored  race,  lest  they  come  to  an  equality  with 
the  white  man,  I  apprehend  instinctively  feels  he 
is  not  that  superior  being  he  would  have  other  men 
think  he  is. 

But  the  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise  is  no 
evidence  of  the  equality  of  men,  —  not  the  least.  It 
is  not  evidence  of  equality,  more  than  is  the  ser 
vice  which  men  perform  as  jurors.  You  look  at 
twelve  men  in  the  panel,  and  do  you  infer,  because 
they  happen  to  be  together,  that  they  are  all  equal  ? 
When  you  see  witness  after  witness  called  upon 
the  stand,  occupying  the  same  place,  to  give  testi 
mony  of  what  they  know  severally  of  the  matter  in 
issue,  do  you  infer  that  those  witnesses  are  all 
equal  ?  You  infer  nothing  of  the  kind.  You  only 
infer  that  their  services,  in  that  particular  capacity, 
are  essential  to  the  administration  of  the  law. 
When  you  give  all  men  the  right  to  vote,  there  is 
no  ground  for  inferring  that  they  are  equal  to 
each  other  in  any  particular,  but  only  that  the 
services  of  these  men  at  the  ballot-box  are  essential 
to  the  proper  administration  of  the  law.  The  right 


EQUAL   SUFFRAGE.  417 

to  vote  is  not  a  right  merely,  it  is  a  duty.  When 
a  man  has  a  place  in  society;  when,  by  the  con 
stitution  of  the  government  under  which  he  lives, 
authority  is  derived  from  the  consent  of  the  gov 
erned, —  it  is  his  duty,  as  well  as  his  right  and 
privilege,  to  go  to  the  ballot-box,  and  express  his 
opinion  on  public  affairs. 

The  essential  difference  between  our  government 
and  the  aristocratical  and  monarchical  governments 
of  Europe  is  in  the  fact,  that  by  theory,  if  not  yet 
in  practice,  our  government  is  a  popular  govern 
ment,  while  theirs  are  in  a  greater  or  less  degree 
exclusive.  Therefore  for  what  reason  are  we  to 
exclude  any  portion  of  our  citizens  from  the  enjoy 
ment  of  the  elective  franchise  ?  Whenever  we  do  it, 
whether  it  be  in  a  large  or  small  degree,  we  admit 
that  our  theory  of  government  is  wrong,  and  that 
theirs  is  right.  Our  theory  is,  that  the  whole 
people  are  better  and  wiser  and  stronger  than  a 
minority,  however  large.  The  theory  of  their  gov 
ernments  is,  that  the  whole  people  are  not  to  be 
trusted  with  the  administration  of  affairs  ;  that 
some,  for  one  reason  or  another,  are  to  be  excluded. 
Do  you  not  see,  if  you  are  to  exclude  men  for  any 
reason  except  crime  or  dependence  on  the  public  for 
support,  —  if  you  are  to  exclude  men  for  any  other 
reason,  —  there  is  no  line  upon  which  you  can  stop  ? 
Is  it  not  the  old  organic  theory  of  monarchical  gov 
ernments,  inasmuch  as  the  mass  of  the  people  were 
not  to  be  trusted,  power  must  be  put  into  the  hands 
of  the  wisest  or  bravest  to  be  found  amongst  them  ? 

I  come  to  my  own  State  of  Massachusetts.  It 
is  not  often  Massachusetts  is  called,  in  any  particu- 

27 


418  EQUAL   SUFFRAGE. 

lar,  to  aid  those  who  are  for  limiting  the  rights 
of  man :  generally  her  distinction  has  been  that 
she  has  advanced  as  far  and  as  fast  as  possible 
upon  the  road  which  leads  to  the  amelioration  and 
elevation  of  the  whole  human  race.  But  in  our 
State,  it  is  true,  we  have  a  provision  in  the  Consti 
tution,  adopted  ton  years  since,  by  which  persons 
under  sixty  years  of  age,  who  come  to  the  ballot- 
box,  must  be  able  to  read  the  Constitution  and  to 
write.  There  are,  indeed,  many  reasons  for  a  pro 
vision  of  this  sort ;  but  I  think,  upon  careful  exami 
nation,  they  are  reasons  which  will  not  bear  the  test 
of  scrutiny.  The  effect,  undoubtedly,  of  such  a 
provision  would  be  to  induce  persons,  who  might 
otherwise  have  remained  in  ignorance,  to  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  reading  and  writing.  I  will  say  here, 
for  I  do  not  mean  to  be  misunderstood,  I  do  not  par 
ticularly  object  to  such  a  provision ;  but  I  ask  you 
as  friends  of  the  country,  that  every  man,  without 
regard  to  qualification  or  condition,  shall  be  ad 
mitted  to  the  ballot-box.  And  what  I  ask  is,  that, 
when  you  make  a  provision  which  limits  the  right 
of  anybody  to  exercise  the  elective  franchise,  it  shall 
be  a  provision  which  applies  equally  and  alike  to  all 
men  and  to  every  race. 

If  it  be  true,  as  I  suppose  it  is,  that  there  are 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  white  men  in 
the  eleven  States  recently  in  rebellion  who  cannot 
read  and  write,  I  cannot  understand  how  they  are 
qualified  to  go  to  the  ballot-box  and  vote  for  Repre 
sentatives  to  Congress  and  for  Electors  of  President 
and  Vice-President,  while  those  men  who  are  black 
men,  and  who  are  no  more  ignorant  than  their  white 


EQUAL   SUFFRAGE.  419 

brothers;  are  denied  the  privilege  upon  the  ground 
of  incapacity.  That  is  political  logic  which  I  can 
not  understand  ;  but  I  think  you  will  find  on  ex 
amination  that  the  absence  of  ability  to  read  and 
write,  is  not  a  reason  for  excluding  a  man  from  the 
polls.  What  we  want  is  representation  based  upon 
public  judgment.  It  is  better  that  men  should  be 
learned,  it  is  better  that  men  should  be  wise,  it  is 
better  that  they  should  be  honest.  It  is  the  duty  of 
the  government  and  of  individuals  to  do  whatever 
may  be  done  to  promote  these  things ;  but,  after  all, 
when  you  say  that  A  shall  not  vote  because  he  does 
not  know  as  much  as  B,  on  the  next  occasion  B 
may  be  excluded  because  he  does  not  know  as  much 
as  C,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  alphabet,  when  you 
will  have  placed  all  power  in  one  man  because  he  is 
wiser  than  others.  That  is  the  essence  of  aris 
tocracy,  of  monarchy,  of  governments  opposed  to 
democracy.  It  is  not  pretended  that  men  are  equal 
ly  wise  or  learned  or  honest,  but  only  that  the 
wisest  and  best  government  is  obtained  by  taking 
the  judgment  of  all  men,  wise  and  ignorant,  learned 
and  unlearned,  and  accepting  the  results. 

This  war  has  demonstrated  two  propositions  which 
we  all  shall  do  well,  I  think,  to  bear  in  mind,  that 
this  government  is  wiser  and  stronger  than  any 
other.  The  wisdom  of  the  government  was  first 
and  chiefly,  I  say  with  due  respect  to  those  who 
have  administered  public  affairs  in  legislative  and 
executive  departments,  —  the  wisdom  of  this  gov 
ernment,  in  this  great  crisis,  was  primarily  the 
wisdom  of  the  people.  They  anticipated  the  neces 
sities  of  the  case.  They  saw  more  clearly  in  States 


420  EQUAL   SUFFRAGE. 

remote  from  the  theatre  of  war  what  was  neces 
sary  than  e/en  they  who  were  intrusted  with  the 
administration  of  public  affairs  here. 

It  was  true  as  early  as  November,  1860,  before 
the  result  of  the  presidential  election  had  been  ob 
tained  or  the  election  itself  had  taken  place,  that 
men  in  the  various  and  remote  sections  of  the  coun 
try  anticipated  distinctly  the  events  upon  which  the 
country  was  about  to  enter.  I  hope  it  may  be  re 
corded  and  remembered  to  the  courage  of  the  people 
of  the  country,  that  they  anticipated  the  necessity  of 
the  proclamation  of  emancipation  long  before  any 
voice  went  out  from  this  capital.  And  so  I  say 
now,  while  we  who  are  intrusted  with  public  affairs 
may  stand  here  and  deliberate  and  move  cautiously, 
first  in  one  direction  and  then  in  another,  the  great 
body  of  the  people  are  moving  with  a  step  precise 
and  irresistible  to  the  result  which  they  see  is  the 
necessity  of  the  condition  in  which  the  country  is 
placed,  —  the  granting  of  the  right  of  manhood,  the 
right  of  suffrage,  to  four  million  of  colored  peo 
ple,  who  have  already  been  emancipated. 

I  say  this  government  has  proved  stronger  than 
any  other.  The  great  mass  of  the  people  in  the 
North,  from  the  fact  that  they  and  their  fathers 
through  generations  had  had  a  part  in  the  govern 
ment,  that  it  was  their  government,  volunteered  for 
the  defence  of  the  Union.  Do  you  suppose  that  in 
England,  in  France,  or  in  Austria,  or  anywhere  else 
within  the  limits  of  the  civilized  coimtries  of  the 
earth,  two  or  three  million  of  men  would  have 
volunteered  in  defence  of  their  country  ?  By  no 
means  ;  but  the  old  men  and  the  young  men  of  this 


EQUAL  SUFFRAGE.  421 

country  rallied  to  the  support  of  the  Union  because 
they  felt  it  was  their  government,  because  they  felt 
it  was  their  work  which  was  threatened  by  traitors 
and  rebels ;  and  therefore  they  perilled  their  lives 
for  its  defence. 

And  it  was  chiefly  due  to  the  fact,  that  universal 
suffrage  existed  in  the  North,  and  that  it  did  not 
exist  in  the  South,  that  we  are  indebted  for  the 
triumphant  conclusion  of  the  war.  If  there  had 
been  no  restriction  upon  suffrage,  if  these  four  mil 
lion  of  black  people  in  the  eleven  or  fifteen  Southern 
States  of  this  Union  had  been  free  and  endowed 
with  the  elective  franchise,  had  possessed  power, 
had  had  part  in  the  government  of  the  South,  and 
had  entered  with  their  masters  into  this  contest 
against  the  Union  and  integrity  of  the  republic,  they 
would  have  succeeded.  Our  power  was  in  the  uni 
versal  right  of  the  people  to  participate  in  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  country.  Their  weakness  was  in 
the  fact  that  they  had  denied  to  one-third  of  their 
people  the  right  to  participate  in  the  government. 
Therefore  I  say  a  popular  government  is  stronger 
than  any  other.  It  is  founded  in  the  rights  and 
affections  of  the  people,  and  it  will  be  upheld  and 
defended  by  their  lives.  And,  if  there  be  any  such 
thing  as  immortality  for  a  State,  it  must  be  in  the 
fact,  that  the  State  itself  is  founded  in  the  immortal 
rights  and  aspirations  of  the  people,  —  the  right  of 
each  individual  to  his  own  life  and  his  own  liberty 
to  a  participation  in  the  government  under  which 
he  lives,  and  which  he  is  bound  to  defend. 

I  do  not  say  what  the  country  chooses  to  do.  I 
do  not  know  what  its  opinions  are  on  this  question 


422  EQUAL  SUFFRAGE. 

of  suffrage.  I  know  inferences  are  drawn  from  cer 
tain  events,  from  elections  which  have  taken  place, 
that  the  people  are  opposed  to  negro  suffrage  in  the 
South  ;  but  I  know,  as  well  as  I  can  know  any  thing 
of  the  future,  that  the  people  of  this  country  are 
ultimately,  and  at  a  time  not  far  distant,  to  reach 
the  conclusion  that  they  have  no  safety  except  in 
demanding  and  securing  for  the  colored  people  of 
the  South  equal  rights  with  the  white  people  of  the 
South. 

In  1856,  I  was  going  from  this  city  homewards. 
When  in  the  State  of  Delaware,  the  train  was  thrown 
from  the  track.  It  was  in  the  month  of  August. 
Nobody  was  injured,  and,  as  usual,  nobody  was  to 
blame.  The  passengers  gathered  in  little  squads, 
and,  as  it  was  before  the  election,  they  began  to  talk 
of  political  matters.  I  fell  in  with  a  company  of  gen 
tlemen,  chiefly  from  the  South,  —  one  from  Georgia, 
and  one,  I  think,  from  Texas.  The  pending  election 
was  the  topic  of  conversation.  Some  were  for  Mr. 
Fillmore,  who,  you  will  recollect,  was  a  candidate ; 
and  some  were  for  Mr.  Buchanan,  of  pleasant  mem 
ory.  The  discussion  went  on,  but  I  took  no  part  in 
it.  After  a  time,  they  proposed  a  canvass  to  see 
how  the  gentlemen  gathered  in  this  little  knot  would 
vote.  Some  voted  for  Mr.  Fillmore,  some  for  Mr. 
Buchanan ;  and,  when  they  came  to  me,  I  said 
quietly  I  would  vote  for  Fremont.  That  produced  a 
little  stir  among  these  gentlemen,  and,  unluckily  for 
the  country,  it  so  interrupted  the  canvass  that  we  do 
not  know  to  this  day  how  it  stood. 

The  gentleman  from  Georgia  seemed  very  much 
disposed  to  press  the  conversation,  and  especially 


EQUAL   SUFFRAGE.  423 

upon  the  public  sentiment  of  the  North,  to  know 
how  we  were.  I  saw  the  sort  of  people  I  had  to 
deal  with,  and  thought  I  would  not  move  forward  in 
the  expression  of  my  opinion  rapidly ;  but,  after  a 
time,  I  said  quietly,  We  are  to  beat  you  by  and  by; 
I  do  not  know  when.  Said  this  gentleman,  How 
do  you  come  to  that  conclusion  ?  I  replied,  You 
may  assume  any  opinion  you  please ;  you  may 
assume  that  the  people  of  the  North  are  all  for  Mr. 
Buchanan  or  all  for  Mr.  Fillmore  ;  still  the  result  in 
the  near  future  is,  that  we  shall  vote  against  the 
institution  of  slavery,  and  I  come  to  that  conclusion 
from  these  premises :  The  clergy  and  churches  of 
the  North  are  very  generally  against  slavery.  The 
schools,  although  they  do  not  teach  politics,  are  all 
in  favor  of  human  liberty.  Last  and  chiefly,  the 
women  of  the  North  are  against  negro  slavery. 
To-day  I  say  the  same  thing.  The  same  influences 
are  at  work  in  the  North  in  favor  of  justice,  — 
justice  to  the  black  man,  as  well  as  to  the  white 
man.  There  are  persons,  I  doubt  not,  in  the 
North  who  have  never  claimed,  and  who  would  not 
perhaps  to  their '  friends  admit,  that  they  were  con 
trolled  by  these  opinions  and  sentiments,  yet  who 
earnestly  and  reverently  believe  that  this  war,  with 
all  its  sacrifices,  is  a  just  punishment,  sent  by 
Heaven  upon  this  people  for  the  great  sin  of 
slavery,  which  is  but  one  form  of  injustice,  and  who 
mean,  now  that  they  have  waded  through  blood, 
have  seen  their  sons  and  brothers  fall  beneath  the 
power  of  the  rebellion  and  by  the  hands  of  treason, 
to  clean  the  garments  of  the  country  from  the  foul 
stain  of  injustice  of  every  form  which  can  be  ascribed 


424  EQUAL   SUFFRAGE. 

to  the  nation  in  its  political  character.  It  needs 
no  eye  of  prophecy,  this  being  the  case,  to  penetrate 
the  future,  and  to  see  what  is  before  us.  It  will  turn 
out,  whatever  men  may  advise,  whatever  doctrines 
they  may  entertain  in  their  hearts,  that  any  arrange 
ment  or  compromise  or  apparent  settlement  of  this 
business  upon  any  other  foundation  than  that  of 
justice  will  not  stand. 

I  ask  you,  gentlemen,  and  I  ask  the  country, 
whether  four  million  of  people  are  to  be  held  as 
unworthy  to  participate  in  this  government.  I  ask 
whether  we  are  now  to  adopt  a  policy  by  which  re 
bellion  and  insurrection,  war  and  bloodshed,  through 
out  the  slave  States,  will  be  rendered  certain  in 
the  future.  Does  any  man  suppose  that  these  four 
million  of  people,  one  hundred  thousand  or  a  hun 
dred  and  fifty  thousand  of  whom  have  been  in  arms 
for  the  defence  of  this  government  and  this  country, 
who  have  been  taught  the  arts  of  war,  who  know 
the  power  of  organization,  who  know  their  rights 
and  the  means  by  which  they  are  to  be  defended, — 
does  any  one  in  his  senses  suppose  that  these  four 
million  of  people  are  quietly  to  submit  to  any  ar 
rangement,  to  be  made  here,  by  which  they  are  to 
be  deprived  of  their  rights  as  men  ?  Doubling  in 
population  as  they  do  in  every  twenty-three  years, 
soon  to  be  eight,  and  soon  after  to  be  sixteen  mil 
lion,  does  any  one  suppose  there  are  means  by 
which  they  can  be  made  loyal  to  the  government  of 
the  country,  except  by  a  free,  just,  and  generous  con 
cession  to  them  of  their  rights  at  once  ?  Those  who 
ask  us  to  pursue  a  policy  by  which  these  people  are 
to  be  deprived  of  all  share  in  the  -government  of  the 


EQUAL   SUFFRAGE.  425 

country,  ask  us  to  consign  these  eleven  States  to 
civil  and  social  war  for  an  indefinite  period  of  time. 
There  can  be  no  security  for  life,  there  can  be  no 
security  for  property,  among  them.  The  path  of 
justice  is  the  path  of  safety. 

I  have  spoken  longer,  perhaps,  than  is  well ;  only 
one  thought  remains  which  I  care  to  present.  It 
has  been  said  that  this  is  a  white  man's  country. 
You  will  remember  that  the  President  himself,  in  a 
speech  to  the  colored  people  a  few  months  ago,  re 
pudiated  that  idea ;  and  I  think  there  will  and  can 
be  nothing  in  his  life,  or  the  life  of  any  man  of 
which  posterity  will  be  more  proud,  than  the  fact, 
that  the  President  of  the  country,  at  this  time,  gave 
no  countenance  or  support  to  so  unjust  a  doctrine  as 
that.  I  remember  when  Kossuth  visited  the  coun 
try,  and  for  the  first  time  addressed  the  people  of 
Massachusetts  at  Faneuil  Hall,  that  he  told  those  who 
had  assembled  in  the  Cradle  of  Liberty  to  listen  to 
him,  that  they  should  not  say  American  liberty,  but 
liberty  in  America.  Said  he,  "  Liberty  is  Liberty,  as 
God  is  God." 

So  I  say  this  is  not  the  white  man's  country,  it  is 
not  the  black  man's  country,  it  is  not  the  red  man's 
country :  it  is  a  country  which  by  Divine  Providence 
has  been  preserved  during  centuries,  with  all  its 
fertility  and  resources,  where  men  might  create 
and  build  homes  and  government  founded  upon 
Christian  civilization.  This  is  a  country  —  for  so  it 
was  willed  —  to  which  should  come  all  people  whom 
God  has  chosen  to  place  upon  the  earth.  That  man 
is,  in  some  form  or  other,  an  enemy  to  the  human 
race,  who  claims  this  as  the  white  man's  country  or 


425  EQUAL   SUFFRAGE. 

the  black  man's  country.  It  is  the  country  of  man, 
set  apart  and  dedicated  by  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the 
world.  To  call  us,  who  are  now  expecting  and  are 
about  to  enter  on  the  enjoyment  of  a  restored  Union, 
for  the  first  time  to  announce  that  this  is  the  white 
man's  country,  is  the  basest  ingratitude.  If  such 
was  our  opinion,  we  should,  two  years  and  more 
ago,  before  we  invited  men  of  another  color  to  par 
ticipate  with  us,  to  jeopard  and  sacrifice  their  lives 
in  defence  of  the  country, — we  should  then  have  de 
clared,  that  when  it  was  free  and  restored,  it  should 
be  the  white  man's  country.  It  does  not  lie  in  our 
mouths,  after  we  have  accepted  the  blood  of  these 
men ;  after  they  have  stood  in  the  ranks  and  upon 
the  field  of  battle  in  the  place  of  your  fathers,  hus 
bands,  sons,  and  brothers  ;  now  that  they  sleep 
the  sleep  of  death,  and  their  bones  bleach  upon  the 
plains  of  the  South,  —  to  say  that  this  is  the  white 
man's  country.  They  have  earned  in  the  noblest 
manner,  and  with  the  largest  sacrifices,  the  right  to 
call  this  their  country. 


427 


SUFFRAGE  IN  THE   DISTRICT   OF 
COLUMBIA. 


SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OE  REPRESENTATIVES,  JAN.  18, 
1866. 


T^HE  House  having  under  consideration  the  bill 
extending  the  right  of  suffrage  in  the  District 
of  Columbia, — 

Mr.  BOUTWELL  said :  — 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  —  It  is  only  recently  that  I  enter 
tained  the  purpose  to  speak  upon  this  bill,  and  it 
was  my  expectation  to  avail  myself  of  the  kindness 
of  the  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  to 
divide  with  him  the  time  allotted  to  him  by  the 
rules  of  the  House ;  but  I  accept  the  opportunity 
now  presented,  before  the  previous  question  is  de 
manded,  to  state  certain  views  I  entertain  on  the 
subject. 

I  may  say,  in  the  beginning,  that  I  am  opposed 
to  all  dilatory  motions  upon  this  bill.  I  am  op 
posed  to  the  instructions  moved  by  the  gentleman 
from  New  York  [Mr.  Hale],  because  I  see  in  them 
no  advantage  to  anybody,  and  I  apprehend  from 
their  adoption  much  evil  to  the  country.  It  should 
be  borne  in  mind,  that,  when  we  emancipated  the 
black  people,  we  not  only  relieved  ourselves  from 
the  institution  of  slavery,  we  not  only  conferred 
upon  them  freedom,  but  we  did  more :  we  recog- 


428  SUFFRAGE  IN  THE 

nized  their  manhood,  which,  by  the  old  Constitution 
and  the  general  policy  and  usage  of  the  country, 
had  been,  from  the  organization  of  the  government 
until  the  emancipation  proclamation,  denied  to  all 
of  the  enslaved  colored  people.  As  a  consequence  of 
the  recognition  of  their  manhood,  certain  results 
follow,  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  the  gov 
ernment  ;  and  they  who  believe  in  this  government 
are,  by  necessity,  forced  to  accept  those  results  as 
a  consequence  of  the  policy  of  emancipation  which 
they  have  inaugurated,  and  for  which  they  are  re 
sponsible. 

But  to  say  now,  having  given  freedom  to  the 
blacks,  that  they  shall  not  enjoy  the  essential  rights 
and  privileges  of  men,  is  to  abandon  the  principle 
of  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  and  tacitly  to 
admit  that  the  whole  emancipation  policy  is  erro 
neous. 

It  has  been  suggested,  that  it  is  premature  to 
demand  immediate  action  upon  the  question  of  negro 
suffrage  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  I  am  not  per 
sonally  responsible  for  the  presence  of  the  bill  at 
this  time ;  but  I  am  responsible  for  the  observation 
that  there  never  has  been  a  day  during  a  session 
of  Congress  since  the  emancipation  proclamation, 
—  ay,  since  the  negroes  of  this  district  were 
emancipated, — when  it  was  not  the  duty  of  the 
government,  which  by  the  Constitution  is  intrusted 
with  exclusive  jurisdiction,  to  confer  upon  the 
men  of  this  district,  without  distinction  of  race 
or  color,  the  rights  and  privileges  of  men.  And, 
therefore,  there  can  be  nothing  premature  in  this 
measure,  and  I  cannot  see  how  any  one  who  sup- 


DISTRICT   OF   COLUMBIA.  429 

ports  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  which  is 
a  recognition  of  the  manhood  of  the  colored  people 
of  this  country,  can  hesitate  as  to  his  duty ;  and, 
while  I  make  no  suggestion  as  to  the  duty  of  other 
men,  I  have  a  clear  perception  of  my  own.  First, 
we  are  bound  to  treat  the  colored  people  in  this  dis 
trict  in  regard  to  the  matter  of  voting  precisely  as 
we  treat  white  people.  And  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
express  the  opinion,  that  if  the  question  here  to-day 
were  whether  any  qualification  should  be  imposed 
upon  white  voters  in  this  district,  if  they  alone 
were  concerned,  this  House  would  not  consider  — 
ay,  not  ten  men  upon  this  floor  would  consider 
—  whether  any  qualifications  should  be  imposed 
or  not. 

What  are  the  qualifications  suggested  ?  They 
are  three.  First  and  most  attractive,  service  in 
the  army  or  navy  of  the  United  States.  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  say,  if  I  discuss,  as  I  hope  to  dis 
cuss,  the  nature  and  origin  of  the  right  of  voting, 
that  there  is  not  the  least  possible  connection  be 
tween  service  in  the  army  and  navy  and  the  exercise 
of  the  elective  franchise,  —  none  whatever.  These 
men  have  performed  service,  and  I  am  for  dealing 
justly  with  them  because  they  have  performed  ser 
vice.  But  I  am  more  anxious  to  deal  justly  by 
them  because  they  are  men.  And  when  it  is 
remembered,  that,  for  months  and  almost  for  years 
after  the  opening  of  the  rebellion,  we  refused  to 
accept  the  services  of  colored  persons  in  the  armies 
of  the  country,  it  is  with  an  ill  grace  that  we  now 
decline  to  allow  the  vote  of  any  man  because  he 
has  not  performed  that  service. 


430  SUFFRAGE  IN  THE 

The  second  is  the  property  qualification.  I  hope 
it  is  not  necessary  in  this  day  and  this  hour  of  the 
republic  to  argue  anywhere  that  a  property  quali 
fication  is  not  only  unjust  in  itself,  but  that  it  is 
odious  to  the  people  of  the  country  to  a  degree 
which  cannot  be  expressed.  Everywhere,  I  believe, 
for  half  a  century,  it  has  been  repudiated  by  the 
people.  Does  anybody  contemplate  such  a  qualifi 
cation  to  the  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise,  in 
the  case  of  black  people  or  white  ? 

And,  next,  reading  and  writing,  or  reading,  as  a 
qualification,  is  demanded ;  and  an  appeal  is  made 
to  the  example  of  Massachusetts.  I  wish  gentle 
men  who  now  appeal,  to  Massachusetts  would  often 
appeal  to  her  in  other  matters  where  I  can  more 
conscientiously  approve  her  policy.  But  it  is  a  dif 
ferent  proposition  in  Massachusetts  as  a  practical 
measure.  When,  ten  years  ago,  this  qualification 
was  imposed  upon  the  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  it 
excluded  no  person  who  was  then  a  voter.  For 
two  centuries,  we  have  had  in  Massachusetts  a  sys 
tem  of  public  instruction,  open  to  the  children  of 
the  whole  people  without  money  and  without  price. 
Therefore  all  the  people  there  had  had  opportunities 
for  education.  Why  should  the  example  of  such 
a  State  be  quoted  to  justify  refusing  suffrage  to 
men  who  have  been  denied  the  privilege  of  educa 
tion,  and  whom  it  has  been  a  crime  to  teach  ?  Is 
there  no  difference  ? 

I  suppose  it  will  happen,  even  if  you  pass  this 
reading  amendment,  that,  between  any  two  annual 
elections,  any  negro  twenty-one  years  of  age  who 
is  in  this  city,  or  who  may  come  here,  will  acquire 


DISTRICT   OF   COLUMBIA.  431 

the  ability  to  read.  The  requirement  will  not  ex 
clude  many  men.  My  objection  is  not  that  in  this 
district  it*  will  exclude  a  great  number  from  the 
exercise  of  the  elective  franchise ;  but  I  object  to 
the  measure  upon  principle.  The  right  to  vote, is 
a  higher  and  better  right  than  can  be  derived  from 
the  simple  fact  that  a  man  can  read. 

I  have  often  elsewhere  endeavored  to  trace  the 
origin  and  nature  of  the  right  to  vote.  I  believe 
that  during  this  discussion  the  views  I  entertain 
have  not  been  stated ;  and  therefore,  with  such 
brevity  as  I  can  command,  I  will  venture  to  offer 
the  opinion  I  entertain  of  the  nature  and  proper 
limitations  of  the  elective  franchise.  While  it  may 
not  be  a  natural  right,  like  the  right  of  locomotion, 
like  the  right  to  breathe,  —  a  natural,  personal 
right.  —  still  I  think  I  can  offer  suggestions,  deduced 
from  the  law  of  nature  —  which  will  show  that  it  is 
a  natural  social  right.  I  accept,  as  the  basis  of 
what  I  have  to  say,  the  great  law  of  nature  sup 
ported  by  revelation,  —  the  existence  of  the  family, 
—  from  which  no  people,  savage  or  civilized,  has  ever 
escaped.  The  family  exists  by  divine  authority. 
It  is  the  first  law  of  society,  of  the  community ; 
it  is  the  element  of  all  States,  and  it  has  generally 
one  idea,  one  opinion,  and  one  will,  upon  all  ques 
tions  affecting  the  fortunes  of  the  family  or  of  any 
of  its  members. 

Thus  the  creation  of  man,  and  his  doings  after 
his  creation,  illustrate  most  conclusively  two  facts, — 
the  existence  of  the  family,  and  the  unity  of  the 
will  of  the  family.  When  we  admit  that  the  family 
is  the  element  of  the  State,  the  unit  of  society,  that 


432  SUFFRAGE   IN   THE 

it  has  but  one  will,  what  follows  ?  That  whenever 
more  than  one  family  is  in  existence,  and  the  ques 
tion  arises  what  shall  be  done  with  reference  to  the 
community  of  families,  then  the  families  are  to  be 
consulted.  Hence  arises  the  doctrine  that  there 
can  be  no  just  government  except  by  the  consent 
of  the  governed. 

What  I  maintain  next  is,  that  you  have  no  right 
to  exclude  from  this  consultation  any  one  of  the 
families ;  for  the  moment  you  do  so  you  violate 
the  principle  of  government.  Consequently,  but 
one  voice  is  needed  for  the  expression  of  the  one 
will  of  the  family;  and  the  question  then  arises, 
whose  voice  shall  it  be  ?  Properly,  the  voice  of 
that  one  who,  if  the  government  constituted  by 
the  agency  and  authority  of  the  family  be  assailed, 
is  to  peril  his  life  in  its  defence.  Thus  is  demon 
strated  the  priority  of  right  by  nature  which  gives 
to  the  man  the  expression  of  the  voice  of  the  family, 
rather  than  to  the  woman  or  the  child. 

Next,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  it  not  seen  that,  if  these 
propositions  be  true,  the  right  to  vote  exists  inde 
pendently  of  all  human  agency  in  the  sense  of  law ; 
and  the  doctrine  that  the  right  of  voting  is  a  con 
ventional  right  is  not  sustained  by  reason  or  his 
tory  ?  History  shows  only  this,  that  the  limitations 
upon  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  voting  are  the 
results  of  conventions.  The  natural  social  right 
is  the  right  of  the  family  to  speak  in  all  matters 
which  concern  the  welfare  of  the  family  as  one  fam 
ily  in  the  great  society  and  family  of  man. 

This  demonstrates,  I  think,  that  the  negro  has 
everywhere  the  same  right  to  vote  as  the  white  man. 


DISTRICT   OF    COLUMBIA.  483 

And  I  maintain  still  further,  that,  when  you  proceed 
one  step  from  this  line,  you  admit  that  your  govern-" 
ment  is  a  failure.  What  is  the  essential  quality  of 
monarchical  and  aristocratic  government  ?  Simply 
that  by  conventionalities,  by  arrangements  of  con 
ventions,  some  persons  have  been  deprived  of  the 
right  of  voting.  We  have  attempted  to  set  up  and 
maintain  a  government  upon  the  doctrine  of  the 
equality  of  man,  the  universal  right  of  all  men  to 
participate  in  the  government.  In  accordance  with 
that  theory,  we  must  accept  the  ballot  upon  the 
principle  of  equality.  It  is  enjoyed  by  the  learned 
and  the  unlearned,  the  wise  and  the  ignorant,  the 
virtuous  and  the  vicious. 

The  great  experiment  is  going  on.  If,  before 
the  war,  any  man  in  this  country  was  disposed  to 
undervalue  a  government  thus  conducted,  he  should 
have  learned  by  this  time  the  wisdom  and  the 
strength  of  a  government  which  embraces  and 
embodies  the  judgment  and  the  will  of  the  whole 
people.  If  the  negroes  of  the  South,  four  million 
strong,  had  been  endowed  with  the  elective  fran 
chise,  and  had  united  with  the  white  people  of  that 
region  in  the  work  of  rebellion,  your  armies  would 
have  been  powerless  to  subdue  that  rebellion,  and 
you  would  to-day  have  seen  your  territory  limited 
by  the  Potomac  and  the  Ohio. 

And  if,  in  the  North,  suffrage  had  been  limited, 
as  it  is  in  Great  Britain,  you  could  not  have  com 
manded  two  million  six  hundred  thousand  volun 
teers  for  the  defence  of  the  republic.  The  unity 
of  sentiment  in  the  loyal  States  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  every  man  felt  that  the  government  was  his 

28 


434  SUFFRAGE   IN   THE 

own.  This  only  illustrates  how  strong  a  govern- 
"ment  is  when  it  is  founded  upon  the  judgment  and 
the  will  of  the  whole  people,  and  how  weak  it  is 
when  founded  upon  the  judgment  and  the  will  of 
a  part. 

I  advance  still  further.  I  have  said  that  I  con 
sider  this  question  as  involving  other  issues  than  the 
mere  matter  of  suffrage  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
I  do  not  conceal  my  opinion  from  friend  or  opponent. 
I  am  of  those  who  believe  that  any  restoration  of 
either  of  the  eleven  States  lately  engaged  in  the 
rebellion  to  political  power  in  the  government  of 
this  country,  which  is  not  coupled  with  or  preceded 
by  the  condition  that  the  negroes  of  the  South  are 
to  vote,  opens  a  way  to  the  destruction  of  this  gov 
ernment  from  which  there  is  no  escape.  I  declare, 
after  the  gravest  deliberation  and  the  calmest  reflec 
tion, — and  I  say  it  with  sorrow,  —  looking  upon  the 
country,  rent  by  opposite  opinions  on  this  question, 
that,  without  such  a  measure  as  I  suggest  for  the 
Southern  States,  this  government  cannot  outlast 
those  who  are  now  in  the  vigor  of  manhood.  Why 
and  how  will  it  fail  ? 

It  will  fail  and  fall  from  the  fact,  that,  by  restora 
tion  without  this  all-essential  guarantee,  we  put  into 
the  hands  of  our  enemies  in  the  South  two  weapons, 
the  blows  of  which  we  shall  be  powerless  to  parry. 
One  is  the  assumption  by  the  government  of  a  vast 
and  overwhelming  weight  of  indebtedness,  to  be 
followed  by  a  foreign  war.  We  see  to-day  how  dif 
ficult  it  is  to  restrain  and  control  the  people  of  this 
country  in  their  desire  to  take  just  vengeance  for 
the  wrongs  inflicted  upon  them  by  England  and 


DISTRICT  OF   COLUMBIA.  435 

France.  Assume  the  power  of  this  government 
intrusted  to  the  hands  of  the  late  slaveholders,  the 
men  recently  engaged  in  rebellion :  does  any  man 
believe  that  they  are  restored  to  their  right  mind, 
that  they  will  give  an  ardent  support  to  the  gov 
ernment  ?  All  the  testimony  is  that  they  are  as 
alien  and  hostile  to  this  government  as  ever,  and 
that  they  only  seek  an  opportunity  to  strike  a 
deadly  blow. 

What  opportunity  do  you  give  them  ?  They  are 
marshalling  to-day  in  Virginia,  in  South  Carolina, 
in  Louisiana,  their  claims  upon  this  government. 
They  will  demand  12,000,000,000  for  slaves,  untold 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  for  depredations 
committed  by  our  armies.  An  aggregate  of  thou 
sands  of  millions  of  claims,  or  demands  having  the 
color  of  claims,  will  be  marshalled  against  the  gov 
ernment;  and  you  invite  sixty  Representatives, 
united,  bound  together  by  the  ties  of  interest  and 
of  ancient  and  unrelenting  hostility,  to  enforce  these 
claims.  This  Congress,  no  doubt,  is  incorruptible  ; 
but  when  there  are  claims  against  the  government 
to  the  amount  of  83,000,000,000,  with  the  support 
that  such  representatives  may  afford,  twenty-two  in 
the  Senate  and  sixty  in  this  House,  with  all  the 
influence  of  this  immense  demand  against  the  gov 
ernment,  do  you  expect  to  resist  them  ?  Do  you 
expect  to  meet  them  with  a  paper  blockade,  consti 
tutional  amendments  ?  If  that  is  your  expectation, 
your  expectation  will  not  be  realized ;  and  when 
they  have  involved  the  country  in  an  indebtedness 
of  four,  five,  or  six  thousand  million  dollars ;  when 
they  have  broken  your  credit  so  that  in  the  markets 


436  SUFFRAGE   IN   THE 

of  the  world  your  paper  will  sell  for  fifty  cents 
on  the  dollar,  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  just 
and  natural  hostility  of  the  people  against  Euro 
pean  aggression,  they  involve  you  in  a  foreign  war, — 
what  have  they  to  do  but  to  march  out  of  the  Union, 
and  bid  you  defiance  ? 

Mr.  SMITH.  —  I  ask  the  gentleman  from  Massachu 
setts  whether  the  loyal  man  of  Louisiana,  or  of  any 
State  of  the  South,  who  has  never  been  in  the  rebel 
lion,  who  has  resisted  it  from  the  beginning  and 
done  all  he  could  against  it,  is  not  entitled  to  dam 
ages,  as  any  man  from  Massachusetts  or  any  other 
loyal  State  of  the  government  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  do  not  reply  to  that  question, 
because  it  is  not  pertinent  to  the  debate  I  am  now 
engaged  in.  I  only  ask  the  House  to  notice  how 
pregnant  is  the  suggestion  itself  of  argument  in 
-support  of  the  view  I  am  presenting  of  the  dangers 
of  restoration  with  the  elective  franchise  in  the 
hands  of  our  enemies  exclusively. 

Mr.  SMITH.  —  I  do  not  know  that  it  is  pertinent  to 
the  result  the  gentleman  proposes  to  come  to,  but 
it  is  to  the  position  he  has  assumed,  and  the  argu 
ment  he  has  presented. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Secondly,  you  leave  the  rebels 
in  possession  of  a  power  which  they  will  surely 
avail  themselves  of  when  they  again  undertake  the 
destruction  of  the  government,  —  the  opportunity 
to  bestow  the  elective  franchise  upon  the  negroes. 
If  you  fail  to  secure  the  black  man  in  his  rights, 
he  will  become  in  a  degree  alien  and  hostile  to  the 
national  government.  In  this  condition,  he  will  be 
ready  to  accept  the  right  of  suffrage  from  the  South- 


DISTRICT  OP  COLUMBIA.  437 

ern  leaders,  and  transfer  his  allegiance,  sympathy, 
and  support  from  you  to  them.  Will  you  leave 
such  a  weapon  in  the  power  of  your  enemies,  when, 
by  a  timely  act  of  justice,  you  can  secure  the  zeal 
ous  and  unwavering  support  of  the  black  race  in 
every  generation  ?  Throughout  this  contest,  the 
blacks  have  exhibited  the  purest  patriotism  and 
the  highest  wisdom.  Can  any  man  name  an  act 
done  by  them  that  has  been  injurious  to  them  as  a 
race  or  prejudicial  to  the  country  ?  Or  can  any  one 
suggest  an  omission  that  has  been  prejudicial  to 
them  or  to  the  country  ?  So  will  they  exhibit  wis 
dom  hereafter.  If  we  fail  in  our  duty,  we  have  no 
right  to  expect  their  support  in  the  future. 

It  is  not  unreasonable  to  anticipate,  that,  in  twelve 
or  twenty-four  months,  several  of  the  States  recently 
in  rebellion  will  confer  the  elective  franchise  upon 
their  negroes.  In  Louisiana,  one-eighth  of  the  voting 
white  population,  I  understand,  are  in  favor  of  that 
measure.  We  know  that  this  force  must  be  aug 
mented  by  accessions  of  loyal  men,  and  for  this 
reason,  —  every  Union  man  in  the  South  who  wants 
protection  for  life,  for  property,  and  for  his  own 
political  rights,  is  compelled  by  necessity  to  form 
an  alliance  with  the  negroes.  They  are  his  friends ; 
and  he  must  make  common  cause  with  his  friends, 
whether  they  be  white  or  black. 

My  chief  objection  to  this  proposed  restriction 
is,  that  the  rebel  States  are  not  likely  to  do  any 
thing  more  for  themselves  than  you  do  for  the 
country  when  you  pass  judgment  and  establish 
your  policy  here.  If  you  put  a  limitation  or  quali 
fication  upon  the  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise, 


438  SUFFRAGE   IN   THE 

who  does  not  see  that  its  enforcement  is  a  question 
of  administration  ?  And  herein  there  is  a  difference 
between  Massachusetts  and  this  district;  there  is 
a  difference  between  Massachusetts  and  Louisiana. 
Our  inspectors  and  examiners  are  in  favor  of  suf 
frage,  and  they  desire  to  give  every  man  the  elective 
franchise.  Every  doubt  is  given  to  the  applicant. 
In  South  Carolina  and  Alabama,  it  is  also  a  question 
of  administration ;  and  do  you  suppose  the  men 
who  will  preside,  and  decide  this  question,  will  come 
to  the  conclusion  that  a  negro  can  read,  when  the 
result  is  that  he  must  also  vote  ?  Will  they  accept 
testimony  that  he  has  been  in  the  army,  when  they 
do  not  want  his  ballot  brought  to  bear  against  them, 
as  his  bayonet  frequently  was  during  the  war  ?  Do 
you  suppose  they  will  tax  him,  when  they  know  that 
taxation  gives  him  the  power  to  interfere  in  the 
government?  More  than  that,  I  do  not  suppose 
that  the  colored  men  in  this  district  would  be  safe 
in  coming  to  the  polls.  I  am  pretty  sure,  that,  in 
the  old  slave  States,  you  would  have  to  muster  the 
entire  black  male  population,  so  that  they  might  go 
to  the  polls  in  safety. 

I  have  thus  given,  -with  less  preparation  than  I 
ought  to  have  made  for  the  discussion  of  so  grave 
a  question,  the  views  I  entertain  upon  this  subject. 
But  beyond  this,  when  we  proclaimed  the  emanci 
pation  of  the  slaves,  and  put  their  lives  in  peril  for 
the  defence  of  the  country,  we  did  in  effect  guarantee 
to  them  substantially  the  rights  of  American  citizens ; 
and  a  Christian  posterity,  and  heathen  countries 
also,  will  demand  how  we  have  kept  our  faith. 

Mr.  SHELLABARGER.  —  With  the  permission  of  the 


DISTRICT   OF   COLUMBIA.  439 

gentleman  from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Boutwell],  I 
desire  to  make  a  single  inquiry.  It  is  this  :  I  under 
stand  the  bill,  as  reported  from  the  Judiciary  Com 
mittee,  proposes  to  strike  out  the  word  "  white " 
from  all  laws  relating  to  the  district,  so  that,  accord 
ing  to  the  law,  each  citizen  shall  have  the  right  to 
vote.  Now,  I  wish  to  know  whether  the  effect  of 
the  bill  will  be  to  submit  to  the  officers  holding  the 
elections  in  this  district  the  right  to  decide,  under 
and  in  the  light  of  the  Dred-Scott  decision,  that 
no  man  can  vote  as  a  citizen  who  is  of  African 
descent,  and  whose  ancestors  were  slaves. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  suppose,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  it  is 
settled  by  recent  authorities  that  the  word  "  citizen" 
embraces  black  persons  as  well  as  white. 

Mr.  SHELLABARGER. —  The  gentleman  does  not 
apprehend  my  inquiry.  The  authorities  of  this 
district,  we  all  know,  will  regard  the  decision  in 
the  Dred-Scott  case  as  law :  and,  if  it  is  law,  then 
no  person  of  African  descent,  whose  ancestors  were 
slaves,  will  be  permitted  to  vote  under  the  provisions 
of  this  bill  as  reported  by  the  committee. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Very  likely  the  gentleman  is 
right.  I  am  addressing  myself  to  the  expediency 
of  putting  a  qualification  to  the  exercise  of  the 
right  of  suffrage  in  this  district ;  and  but  one  thought 
further  remains,  on  the  discussion  of  which  I  was 
just  entering  when  t interrupted  by  the  gentleman 
from  Ohio. 

Mr.  Speaker,  we  are  to  answer  for  our  treatment 
of  the  colored  people  of  this  country ;  and  it  will 
prove  in  the  end  impracticable  to  secure  to  men  of 
color  civil  rights,  unless  the  persons  who  claim  those 


440  SUFFRAGE   IN   THE 

rights  are  fortified  by  the  political  right  of  voting, 
With  the  right  of  voting,  every  thing  that  a  man 
ought  to  have  or  enjoy  of  civil  rights  comes  to  him. 
Without  the  right  to  vote,  he  is  secure  in  nothing. 
I  cannot  consent,  after  all  the  guards  and  safeguards 
which  may  be  prepared  for  the  defence  of  the  col 
ored  men,  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  rights,  —  I 
cannot  consent  that  they  shall  be  deprived  of  the 
right  to  protect  themselves.  One  hundred  and 
eighty-six  thousand  of  them  have  been  in  the  army 
of  the  United  States.  They  have  stood  in  the  places 
of  our  sons  and  brothers  and  friends.  Many  of 
them  have  fallen  in  defence  of  the  country.  They 
have  earned  the  right  to  share  in  the  government ; 
and,  if  you  deny  them  the  elective  franchise,  I 
know  not  how  they  are  to  be  protected.  Otherwise 
you  furnish  the  protection  which  is  given  to  the 
lamb  when  he  is  commended  to  the  wolf. 

There  is  an  ancient  history  that  a  sparrow  pur 
sued  by  a  hawk  took  refuge  in  the  chief  assembly 
of  Athens,  in  the  bosom  of  a  member  of  that  illus 
trious  body,  and  that  the  senator  in  anger  hurled 
it  violently  from  him.  It  fell  to  the  ground  dead  ; 
and  such  was  the  horror  and  indignation  of  that 
ancient  but  not  Christianized  body,  —  men  living  in 
the  light  of  nature,  of  reason,  —  that  they  immedi 
ately  expelled  the  brutal  Areopagite  from  his  seat, 
and  from  the  association  of  humane  legislators. 

What  will  be  said  of  us,  not  by  Christian,  but 
by  heathen  nations  even,  if,  after  accepting  the 
blood  and  sacrifices  of  these  men,  we  hurl  them 
from  us,  and  allow  them  to  become  the  victims  of 
those  who  have  tyrannized  over  them  for  centuries  ? 


DISTRICT   OF    COLUMBIA.  441 

I  know  of  no  crime  that  exceeds  this ;  I  know  of 
none  that  is  its  parallel ;  and,  if  this  country  is  true 
to  itself,  it  will  rise  in  the  majesty  of  its  strength, 
and  maintain  a  policy,  here  and  everywhere,  by 
which  the  rights  of  the  colored  people  shall  be  se 
cured  through  their  own  power,  —  in  peace,  the  bal 
lot  ;  in  war,  the  bayonet. 

It  is  a  inaxim  of  another  language,  which  we 
may  well  apply  to  ourselves,  that,  where  the  voting- 
register  ends,  the  military  roster  of  rebellion  begins ; 
and,  if  you  leave  these  four  million  people  to  the 
care  and  custody  of  the  men  who  have  inaugurated 
and  carried  on  this  rebellion,  then  you  treasure  up, 
for  untold  years,  the  elements  of  social  and  civil 
war,  which  must  not  only  desolate  and  paralyze  the 
South,  but  shake  this  government  to  its  very  foun 
dation. 


442 


ADMISSION   OF  TENNESSEE. 


A  REPORT  TO  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  UPON  THE  ADMIS- 
SIGN  OF  TENNESSEE,  SUBMITTED  MARCH  6,  1866,  AND  SIGNED 
BY  MR.  WASHBURNE,  OF  ILLINOIS,  AND  MR.  BOUTWELL,  OF 

MASSACHUSETTS. 


undersigned,  members  of  the  joint  Commit- 
tee  on  Reconstruction,  dissenting  from  the 
report  of  the  majority  concerning  Tennessee,  re 
spectfully  submit  the  following  statement :  — 

The  last  United-States  census  shows  that  rather 
more  than  one-fourth  of  the  people  of  Tennessee  are 
colored  persons,  and  that  less  than  three-fourths  are 
white.  The  evidence  submitted  to  the  committee 
shows  that  the  colored  people  are  unanimously 
loyal  to  this  government,  and  that  about  one-half  of 
the  white  persons  are  disloyal.  In  East  Tennessee, 
the  number  of  loyal  persons  far  exceeds  the  num 
ber  of  disloyal ;  while,  in  Central  and  West  Tennes 
see,  the  loyal  white  population  constitute  only  a 
minority  of  the  whole. 

The  proposition  of  the  committee  contemplates 
the  restoration  of  Tennessee  to  political  power  in 
the  government  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the 
elective  franchise  may  be  confined  to  the  loyal  white 
male  citizens  of  the  State  for  a  period  of  about 
fifteen  years ;  while  no  provision  whatever  is  made 
for  the  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise  by  loyal 
colored  people. 


ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE.  443 

Previous  to  the  rebellion,  the  voting  population 
of  the  State,  then  limited  to  white  persons,  was 
about  120,000.  Of  the  present  voting  population, 
not  more  than  62,000,  and  probably  not  more  than 
50,000,  can  be  regarded  as  loyal.  The  result  of 
the  proposition  of  the  committee  is,  that  a  State 
will  be  exercising  power  in  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  in  which  half  its  white  people,  num 
bering  about  60,000,  and  all  its  colored  population, 
numbering  about  80,000  adult  male  citizens,  will 
be  excluded  from  participation  in  public  affairs. 
Thus  of  about  200,000  adult  male  citizens  of  the 
State,  not  more  than  60,000  will  possess  political 
power. 

The  exclusion  for  a  limited  period  of  time  of  the 
men  who  have  participated  in  the  rebellion,  and  as 
punishment  for  their  offences,  meets  the  approval  of 
the  undersigned,  and  cannot,  by  the  parties  excluded, 
be  made  properly  the  subject  of  complaint ;  but  it 
is  a  very  grave  question,  whether  a  State  govern 
ment  can  be  set  up  and  maintained,  according  to 
the  theory  of  American  institutions,  in  which  seven- 
tenths  of  the  adult  citizens  are  deprived  of  a  voice 
in  its  public  affairs. 

It  appears  conclusively,  from  the  testimony  of 
Major-General  Thomas,  Major-General  Grierson, 
and  others,  that  secret  organizations  exist  in  all  the 
rebel  States,  whose  purpose  is  to  obtain  representa 
tion  in  Congress,  then  to  impair  or  destroy  the  credit 
of  the  national  government,  involve  the  country 
in  a  foreign  war,  and  in  the  end  avail  themselves 
of  the  opportunity  thus  created  to  effect  a  dissolu 
tion  of  the  Union  and  the  establishment  of  a  sepa- 


444  ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE. 

rate  government.  With  a  knowledge  of  these  facts, 
it  would  seem  to  be  of  the  first  importance,  in  the 
reconstruction  of  the  government,  to  secure  in  every 
State  a  loyal  voting  population.  The  statistics  of 
Tennessee  show,  that  it  is  entirely  practicable,  by 
the  extension  of  the  elective  franchise  universally, 
or  by  a  qualification  which  will  render  it  practica 
ble  ultimately,  and  within  a  reasonable  time,  for  the 
adult  male  colored  population  to  become  voters,  to 
place  the  government  of  that  State  irrevocably  in 
the  hands  of  loyal  men. 

In  the  exigency  that  exists,  it  would  seem  to  be 
wise  statesmanship  to  accept  the  services  and 
political  power  of  men  who  have  shown  themselves, 
under  all  circumstances,  to  be  true  friends  of  this 
nation.  Moreover,  the  admission  of  the  colored 
men  to  the  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise  would 
enable  the  loyal  people  of  Tennessee  to  restore 
to  the  mass  of  their  fellow-citizens  who  have  been 
engaged  in  the  rebellion,  and  who  are  not  crimi 
nally  or  officially  distinguished  from  their  associ 
ates,  to  participate,  without  much  delay,  in  the 
government  of  the  State  and  of  the  country. 

This  measure,  which  cannot  be  safely  adopted  if 
the  elective  franchise  is  limited  to  the  white  people 
in  Tennessee,  will  become  entirely  practicable  by 
the  extension  of  the  elective  franchise  as  suggested. 
The  magnanimous  character  of  such  a  proceeding 
could  not  fail  to  induce  many  of  those  who  have 
been  engaged  in  the  rebellion  to  support  the  gov 
ernment  in  good  faith.  Moreover,  the  rule  of 
excluding  permanently,  or  for  a  long  term  of  years, 
all  those  who  have  participated  in  the  rebellion,  if 


ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE.  445 

adopted  in  the  case  of  Tennessee,  must  be  extended 
to  the  other  rebel  States.  In  some  of  those  States, 
not  more  than  a  tenth  or  a  fifth  of  the  people  have 
been  loyal ;  and  in  such  States  it  would  be  impossi 
ble  to  set  up  a  government,  with  any  hope  that  it 
could  be  maintained  permanently,  in  which  the 
elective  franchise  should  be  limited  to  the  loyal 
white  people  exclusively.  Hence  the  country  will 
be  compelled  to  hold  such  States  for  a  long  period 
of  time  without  representation  in  Congress,  and 
subject  to  the  authority  of  the  national  govern 
ment. 

This  theory  is  contrary  to  the  theory  of  our 
institutions,  to  the  practice  of  the  government,  and 
cannot,  for  any  considerable  period  of  time,  be 
pursued.  In  a  few  years,  at  furthest,  such  States, 
even  those  where  the  number  of  loyal  white  people 
is  least,  will  be  admitted  to  power  in  the  govern 
ment  of  the  country,  with  the  elective  franchise  in 
the  hands  of  disloyal  whites,  who,  by  irresistible 
majorities,  will  control  the  policy  of  the  States  and 
the  character  of  their  representation  in  Congress. 

Regarded  as  a  national  question,  and  as  a  subject 
affecting  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  country, 
it  is  of  prime  importance  to  secure  to  each  State  a 
loyal  basis  for  the  maintenance  of  its  government. 
It  seems  unwise  to  consider  as  of  primary  impor 
tance  the  political  character  of  the  representative 
who  may  offer  himself  for  a  seat  in  Congress.  The 
right  to  be  represented  is  the  right  of  the  people. 
No  individual  has  a  right  to  be  a  representative 
until  he  has  been  duly  elected.  While  it  is  emi 
nently  proper  for  each  branch  of  Congress  to  inquire 


446  ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE. 

into  the  loyalty  of  every  claimant  of  a  seat  whose 
loyalty  may  be  questioned,  it  still  is  vastly  more 
important  to  ascertain  the  loyalty  of  the  constitu 
ency  he  claims  to  represent.  The  official  life  of 
the  representative,  whether  in  the  Senate  or  the 
House,  is  comparatively  brief,  while  the  constitu 
ency  is  enduring.  If  the  constituency  be  loyal,  the 
power  of  the  representative  for  evil,  even  though 
he  be  a  man  of  disloyal  opinions,  is  relatively  unim 
portant  ;  but,  if  the  constituency  be  disloyal,  no 
limit  can  be  assigned  to  its  power  to  affect  perni 
ciously  the  public  welfare. 

It  is  also  to  be  observed,  that,  technically  consid 
ered,  a  man  is  loyal  whose  disloyalty  cannot  be 
proved.  If  a  constituency  is  disloyal,  it  will  always 
be  in  its  power  to  select,  as  its  representative,  a 
man  who  is  free  from  any  personal  participation  in 
disloyal  proceedings,  and  yet  who  will  give  his  vote 
and  influence  in  a  manner  to  thwart,  impair,  and 
finally  to  destroy  the  government. 

Nor  can  the  undersigned  be  indifferent  to  the 
claim  of  the  colored  people  of  Tennessee  to  a  par 
ticipation  in  the  government  of  that  State  and  the 
country.  By  the  laws  of  the  land,  they  are  citizens, 
and  are  entitled  consequently  to  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  citizenship.  Nor  does  it  seem  to  be  a 
compliance  with  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution 
by  which  the  United  States  guarantees  to  every 
State  a  republican  form  of  government,  if  we  permit 
Tennessee  to  assume  relations  as  a  State  while  she 
excludes  more  than  one-fourth  of  her  people  from 
the  ballot-box,  which  is  the  only  means  of  protection 
in  time  of  peace. 


ADMISSION    OF   TENNESSEE.  447 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  also,  that  the  colored 
people  are  to  be  taxed  as  other  citizens,  and  that 
they  are  deprived  of  representation  permanently  by 
the  existing  laws  of  Tennessee.  It  is  urged  as  an 
argument  for  admitting  the  rebel  States  immedi 
ately,  that  otherwise  they  are  subject  to  taxation 
without  representation,  contrary  to  the  theory  of 
republican  government.  In  the  case  of  the  rebel 
States,  the  deprivation  of  representative  power  for 
a  brief  time  is  the  result  of  their  own  criminal 
folly ;  but  what  justification  can  be  offered  for 
recognizing  a  system  of  government  in  Tennessee 
which  excludes  permanently  more  than  one-fourth 
of  its  inhabitants,  while  they  are  taxed  equally  with 
those  who  exercise  political  power  ? 

The  undersigned  do  not,  on  the  present  occasion, 
express  any  opinion  as  to  the  legal  relation  sus 
tained  by  Tennessee  to  the  Union,  inasmuch  as  they 
consider  it  more  important  to  secure  her  re-appear 
ance  as  a  State,  clothed  with  full  power,  and  in 
harmony  with  the  general  government,  upon  princi 
ples  which  guarantee  at  once  loyalty  to  the  Union 
and  domestic  peace  within  her  own  borders.  They 
therefore  recommend  the  following  amendment  to 
the  conditions  reported  by  the  committee :  "  Said 
State  shall  make  no  distinction  in  the  exercise  of 
the  elective  franchise  on  account  of  race  or  color." 


448 


LOAN  BILL   AND   CURRENCY. 

REMARKS  MADE  IN  THE  HOUSE   OP    REPRESENTATIVES, 
MARCH  16,  1866. 

MR.  SPEAKER,  —  There  are  two  facts  con 
nected  with  our  financial  experience  which 
have  not,  as  far  as  I  have  observed,  been  noticed, 
and  which  seem  to  me  to  contain  all  that  is  neces 
sary  for  the  solution  of  our  difficulty.  I  am  free  to 
say,  that,  if  I  were  to  follow  in  this  matter  the  dic 
tates  of  my  own  judgment,  I  should  riot  incline  to 
any  legislation,  further  than  to  remove  from  the 
mind  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  the  doubt 
which  he  entertains  with  reference  to  the  authority 
conferred  upon  him  by  the  last  clause  of  the  act  of 
March  3,  1865,  by  which  he  is  authorized  to  con 
vert  outstanding  interest-bearing  obligations  into 
new  interest-bonds.  I  would  by  law  so  construe 
that  language  as  to  allow  him  to  sell  new  bonds, 
and  with  the  proceeds  reduce  the  outstanding  inter 
est-bearing  obligations,  such  as  compound-interest- 
bearing  notes. 

Mr.  WILSON,  of  Iowa.  —  With  the  permission  of 
the  gentleman  from  Massachusetts,  I  desire  to  make 
a  single  inquiry.  I  understand  that  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  has  been  engaged  for  some  time  in 
converting  the  outstanding  interest-bearing  indebt 
edness  of  the  United  States  of  various  kinds  into 


LOAN   BILL   AND   CURRENCY.  449 

long  bonds,  bearing  gold  interest.  Does  the  gen 
tleman  desire  to  be  understood  as  saying  that  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  doubts  his  power  to  do 
that  which  he  has  been  doing  for  months,  and  is 
still  doing  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL. —  I  am  not  able  to  speak  from 
authority,  and  what  I  have  heard  may  not  be  au 
thentic  ;  but  I  have  heard  that  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  had  converted  fifty  millions,  and,  after 
that  conversion,  doubts  arose  in  his  niind.  For 
myself,  I  think  that  the  course  which  he  pursued 
is  entirely  justified  by  the  law.  and  that  he  would 
be  justified  in  proceeding  further  in  the  same 
course.  But  if  any  doubts  exist  in  his  mind,  or  in 
the  mind  of  any  other  intelligent  person.  I  think  it 
proper  that  such  doubt  should  be  removed  by  legis 
lation.  But  inasmuch  as  the  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means  have  thought  proper  to  report  a  bill 
which  goes  further.  I  am.  lor  myself,  content  to  try 
the  experiment  —  thinking  it  to  be  an  experiment  — 
of  converting  the  interest-bearing  obligations  of  the 
country  into  long  bonds  ;  but  I  am  not  disposed  to 
go  further.  The  first  fact  is,  that,  while  there  has 
been  no  reduction  in  the  amount  of  the  currency  — 
the  circulating  medium  of  the  country  —  since  the 
close  of  active  hostilities,  there  has  been  a  consider 
able  diminution  in  the  market  price  of  gold.  The 
second  fact  which  I  think  worthy  of  observation  is 
this:  that  the  merchandise  of  the  country  —  by 
that  1  mean  the  portable  property  of  the  country  — 
is  to-day  in  gold  worth  more  than  the  same  articles 
of  merchandise  were  in  1S,VJ  and  ISM.  The  sus 
pension  of  specie  payment  seems  to  me  to  result 

29 


450  LOAN  BILL  AND   CURRENCY. 

from  one  of  two,  or  from  the  combination  of  two, 
causes,  —  a  panic,  or  a  panic  followed  by  a  decrease 
in  the  convertible  property  of  the  country ;  that 
is,  a  process  of  industrial  exhaustion  which  proba 
bly  results  in  a  disproportion  in  the  material,  port 
able  wealth  in  the  one  country  as  compared  with 
the  portable,  convertible  wealth  of  other  countries. 
It  is  worthy  of  consideration,  after  the  Napoleonic 
war,  although  Great  Britain  persistently,  by  legisla 
tion,  attempted  to  effect  a  restoration  of  specie  pay 
ments,  it  was  not  until  after  many  years  that  she 
was  able  to  accomplish  that  desirable  result.  I 
apprehend  that  our  country  is,  at  the  present  time, 
in  an  analogous  condition.  I  attribute  our  inability 
to  resume  specie  payments  at  the  present  time  to 
this :  that,  as  the  result  of  war  and  the  diversion 
of  a  large  amount  of  individual  force  from  the  peace 
ful  labors  of  life,  we  have  to-day  less  of  convertible 
property  than  we  had  when  the  war  commenced. 
Let  me  illustrate  our  condition  by  a  simple  state 
ment  :  If  I  owe  my  friend  one  hundred  dollars,  and 
have  not  the  money  or  property  with  which  to  pay 
the  debt,  it  is  entirely  useless  for  Congress  to  declare 
by  law  that  I  shall  pay  it,  unless  I  am  furnished  with 
the  means  to  do  so ;  but  if  time  be  given,  and  I 
employ  my  capacities  in  some  productive  way,  and 
earn  a  hundred  dollars,  if  then  disposed  I  can  pay 
that  one  hundred  dollars  without  the  interposition  of 
Congress.  That  is  the  condition  of  this  country  at 
the  present  time.  We  have  less  of  iron,  less  of  cot 
ton,  less  of  all  other  results  of  productive  industry, 
than  other  nations  have  with  which  we  are  in  com 
mercial  relations.  We  must  wait  until,  by  the  applica- 


LOAN  BILL  AND   CURRENCY.  451 

tion  of  productive  power,  the  results  of  our  industry 
agree  more  nearly  with  the  results  of  the  industry  of 
other  countries,  and  then  our  paper  will  come  to  be 
as  valuable  as  gold ;  and  if,  by  legislation,  you  then 
command  the  resumption  of  specie  payments,'  it 
will  be  done  without  financial  disturbance.  I  think 
it  is  wise  policy  for  the  country  to  allow  things  to  go 
on  without  active  interference.  In  the  natural  de 
velopment  of  events,  we  shall  resume  specie  pay 
ments  as  early  as  is  consistent  with  the  business 
interests  of  the  country.  I  believe,  myself,  while 
we  should  not  increase  our  circulation,  that  we 
should  wait  until  another  harvest  has  been  gathered 
in,  and  until  the  results  of  that  harvest  have  been 
made  a  part  of  the  convertible  property  of  the 
country,  before  we  attempt  any  legislation  in  the 
way  of  enforcing  specie  payments.  I  do  not  know 
that  I  wish  to  extend  my  remarks.  I  have  stated, 
very  generally,  to  be  sure,  the  views  I  entertain. 
First  convert  those  bonds  which  will  mature  within 
the  next  two  years  into  other  bonds  for  a  longer 
time,  and  also  the  interest-bearing  treasury  notes 
now  in  the  banks,  leaving  the  four  hundred  and 
fifty  millions  of  currency  in  circulation.  That 
amount  I  believe  to  be  necessary  for  the  wants  of 
the  country.  Perhaps  we  have  not  considered  that 
the  operations  of  the  internal-revenue  department 
alone  require  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  million  to 
enable  it  to  go  011  collecting,  as  it  does,  three  or 
four  hundred  million  of  dollars  a  year.  Then  we 
have  to  consider  that  we  have  added  four  million 
of  people  —  I  mean  the  colored  people  —  to  the 
trading  and  consuming  population  of  the  country. 


452  LOAN  BILL  AND   CURRENCY. 

This  new  element  creates  a  demand  for  a  large 
amount  of  currency.  We  have  also  to  consider 
that  such  has  been  the  increase  of  the  products  of 
the  mines  of  the  world  since  1860,  that  we  can 
never  expect  a  return  to  the  old  prices,  and  there 
fore  it  will  require  more  of  the  circulating  medium 
to  transact  business.  The  advance  in  prices  in 
England,  and  upon  the  Continent  of  Europe,  since 
1860,  is  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  per  cent  on  all 
kinds  of  merchandise,  while  the  advance  in  the  price 
of  land  is  considerable ;  indicating  that  the  advance 
in  this  country,  of  which  complaint  is  made,  is  due 
in  part  to  a  financial  change  which  affects  the  entire 
commercial  world. 


REMARKS  MADE  IN  THE  HOUSE   OP   REPRESENTATIVES, 
MARCH  19,  1866. 

-  SPEAKER,— Nobody  can  be  more  reluctant 
than  I  am  to  oppose  a  measure  of  a  committee 
of  the  House,  or  resist  the  policy  of  any  department 
of  the  government ;  but  I  am  inclined  to  maintain 
the  position  that  under  no  circumstance  ought  this 
House  to  confide  to  any  agent  of  the  government 
authority  to  diminish  the  non-interest-bearing  legal- 
tender  notes.  I  am  altogether  opposed  to  endow 
ing  an  agent  to  do  that  which  we  think  ought  not 
to  be  done.  If  this  House  will  look  at  the  condi 
tion  of  the  country  with  regard  to  its  finances,  it 
seems  to  me  it  can  reach  but  one  conclusion ;  and 
that  is,  that  the  bill  submitted  by  my  colleague 


LOAN  BILL  AND   CURRENCY. 

[Mr.  Hooper]  is  one  which  ought  to  receive  the 
support  of  this  House  and  of  the  country.  And 
I  have  an  observation  to  make  to  the  gentlemen  on 
this  side  of  the  House.  After  having  passed 
through  four  years  of  the  greatest  peril,  both  in  a 
military  and  financial  point  of  view,  I  submit  that 
now  is  not  the  time  to  accept  gifts  from  the  Greeks, 
and  that  it  is  now  a  matter  of  honor,  as  well  as  of 
right,  that  those  who  sit  on  this  side  of  the  House, 
and  represent  a  majority  of  the  loyal  people  of  this 
country,  should  define  and  limit  the  financial  policy 
of  the  administration.  We  have  $450,000,000  of 
non-bearing-interest  currency.  We  have  $260,000,- 
000  of  national-bank  currency,  which  may  reach 
the  maximum  of  $300,000,000,  making  $750,000,- 
000  in  all.  We  have,  in  addition  to  that,  $180,000,- 
000  of  legal-tender  notes,  bearing  interest,  which, 
added  to  the  currency,  amount  to  something  more 
than  $900,000,000.  Under  this  condition  of  things, 
gold  is  to-day  quoted  at  128|.  Last  Friday  it  was 
130|.  It  was  proposed  on  this  side  of  the  House, 
by  those  who  object  to  the  measure  of  the  Com 
mittee  of  Ways  and  Means,  that  the  currency  of 
the  country  shall  be  reduced  between  now  and  the 
first  day  of  December  next,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  one  hundred  and  eighty 
million  dollars,  or  about  twenty  per  cent  of  the 
existing  currency  of  the  country  ;  and  if,  as  gentle 
men  contend  (a  proposition  which  I  do  not  admit), 
the  price  of  gold  follows  the  volume  of  the  currency 
of  the  country,  then  gold  should  stand,  with  that 
reduction,  at  105,  when  Congress  re-assembles  in 
December  next.  That,  sir,  is  as  much  as  the  busi- 


454  LOAN   BILL   AND    CURRENCY. 

ness  of  the  country  can  bear ;  but  if,  in  addition  to 
that,  a  further  reduction  is  made  of  one  hundred 
million  dollars,  as  is  proposed,  three-quarters  of  the 
manufactories  of  the  central  and  northern  portions 
of  the  country  will  be  suspended. 

Sir,  it  is  not  a  question  whether  the  laborers  shall 
be  able  to  earn  a  dollar  and  a  half  or  a  dollar  a 
day,  but  it  is  a  question  of  work  and  subsistence 
for  eight  thousand  of  my  constituents  residing  in  one 
of  the  cities  of  Massachusetts ;  therefore  I  should 
be  false  to  my  trust,  if  I  hesitated  to  say  that  a  limit 
should  be  fixed  beyond  which  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  shall  not  go  in  this  condition  of  public 
affairs.  We  offer  to  fix  it  at  1450,000,000  non- 
bearing-interest  legal  tenders,  $300,00.0,000  national- 
bank  currency ;  and,  if  that  reduction  be  made, 
specie  will  approximate  to  par  with  paper  next  De 
cember,  upon  the  theory  to  which  I  have  before 
referred.  The  authority  to  reduce  the  currency 
without  limit  is  a  vast  authority  to  confide  to  any 
man.  It  gives  the  Secretary  the  power  to  make 
every  man  in  the  country  between  the  Rio  Grande 
and  the  St.  John's,  weep  or  laugh  any  day  at 
pleasure.  I,  for  one,  can  consent  to  no  such  propo 
sition  ;  and  yet  I  feel  bound  to  say  that  there  is 
no  man  whose  general  financial  policy  I  would 
more  heartily  support  than  that  of  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury ;  and  I  should  look  upon  it  as 
a  calamity,  if  his  place  should  be  occupied  by  any 
other  man  whom  it  is  my  fortune  to  know.  But, 
notwithstanding  this  feeling,  and  although  we  are 
all  aware  that  the  power  is  not  to  be  exercised, 
yet,  by  confiding  it  to  him,  we  give  the  people  reason 


LOAN   BILL   AND    CURRENCY.  455 

to  apprehend,  that,  at  some  time,  the  power  may  be 
exercised  by  him,  or  by  his  successor,  whoever  he 
may  be ;  and  that  apprehension  will  be  a  constant 
weight  upon  the  business  interests  of  the  country. 
I  appeal  to  the  chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means  to  allow  this  bill  to  be  recom 
mitted  to  his  committee  without  instructions,  and 
take  their  judgment  after  this  debate.  If  he  will 
agree  to  allow  the  motion  to  recommit  to  be  made, ' 
I  think  I  may  say  that  we  will  not  object  to  the  re 
consideration  ;  but,  if  the  committee  insist  that 
there  shall  be  no  recommitment  of  the  bill,  then 
there  is  no  course  for  us  but  to  vote  against  the 
motion  to  reconsider  the  action  of  Friday  last. 


456 


THE    CONSTITUTIONAL    AMENDMENT    FOR 
EQUALIZING  REPRESENTATION. 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN   THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 
MAY  9,  1866. 

THE  House  having  under  consideration  the  joint 
resolution  (H.  R.  No.  127)  proposing  an  amend 
ment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  re 
ported  from  the  joint  Committee  on  Reconstruc 
tion, — 

Mr.  BOUTWELL  said :  — 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  —  The  gentleman  from  Wisconsin 
[Mr.  Eldridge]  has  made  some  remarks  in  deroga 
tion  of  the  Committee  on  Reconstruction.  I  do 
not  purpose  .to  reply  at  length  to  those  remarks. 
He  has  said  that  the  action  of  the  committee  is  a 
failure.  We  knew  very  well  from  the  beginning, 
that,  as  far  as  he  and  his  friends  were  concerned,  the 
labors  of  the  committee  would  be  a  failure.  He 
puts  one  question,  however,  in  behalf,  I  suppose,  of 
himself  and  his  Democratic  friends,  which  I  feel 
bound  to  answer.  He  says,  "  The  committee  have 
not  told  us  when  our  troubles  "  —  meaning,  I  sup 
pose,  the  troubles  of  himself  and  his  Democratic 
friends  —  "  will  cease." 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE.  —  Oh,  no  !  the  gentleman  certainly 
misunderstood  me.  I  meant  the  troubles  which  the 
Republicans  themselves  were  making. 


THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   AMENDMENT.  457 

Mr.  BouTWfLL.  —  The  troubles  of  the  gentleman 
and  his  friends  are  very  likely  to  increase. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  chief  object  which  I  have 
now  in  view  —  and  I  trust,  that,  in  seeking  to  attain 
that  object,  I  shall  not  go  beyond  the  line  of  parlia 
mentary  debate  into  the  domain  of  partisan  con 
troversy —  is  to  show  how  the  proposition  before 
us  from  that  committee  traverses  the  policy  of  the 
Democratic  party  with  reference  to  the  reconstruc 
tion  of  the  government. 

I  admit  that  the  policy  of  the  Democratic  party  is 
a  simple  policy.  It  is  a  policy  easily  comprehended. 
It  is  a  policy  in  which  for  ten  years,  within  my  ob 
servation,  they  have  been  consistent.  It  is  a  policy 
which  they  laid  down  as  early  as  1856,  in  the  plat 
form  made  at  Cincinnati,  wherein  they  declared  sub 
stantially  —  for  I  cannot  recite  the  precise  language 
of  the  declaration,  as  it  is  many  years  since  I  read 
those  resolutions  —  that  it  was  the  right  of  a  Terri 
tory  to  be  admitted  into  this  Union  with  such  insti 
tutions  as  it  chose  to  establish,  and  not  even  by 
implication  admitting  that  the  representatives  of  the 
existing  government  have  any  right  to  canvass  those 
institutions,  or  to  consider  the  right  of  the  Territory 
to  be  recognized  as  a  State. 

From  that  doctrine,  which  probably  had  its  origin 
in  the  resolutions  of  1798,  the  whole  of  their  policy 
to  this  day  has  legitimately  followed.  First,  we  saw 
its  results  in  the  theories  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  an 
nounced  in  1860,  that,  while  the  Constitution  did 
not  provide  for  or  authorize  the  secession  of  a  State 
from  this  Union,  there  was  no  power  in  the  existing 
government  to  compel  a  State  to  remain  in  the 


458  THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   AMENDMENT 

Union  against  its  own  judgment.  Following  that 
doctrine,  they  come  legitimately  to  the  conclusion  of 
to-day,  in  which  they  are  supported,  as  I  under 
stand,  by  the  President  of  the  United  States  upon 
the  one  side,  and,  as  I  know,  by  the  testimony  of 
Alexander  H.  Stephens,  late  Vice-President  of  the  so- 
called  Confederacy,  upon  the  other.  That  doctrine 
is,  that  these  eleven  States,  each  for  itself,  have  an 
existing,  immediate,  and  unquestionable  right  of 
representation  in  the  government  of  this  country, 
and  that  it  is  a  continuous  right,  which  has  not  been 
interrupted  by  any  of  the  events  of  the  war. 

This  is  a  simple  policy.  It  is  a  direct  policy.  It 
is  a  policy  which  can  be  comprehended.  It  is  the 
policy  of  the  Democratic  party ;  and  whether  the 
President  of  the  United  States  or  the  humblest  citi 
zen  of  the  country  accepts  or  avows  it,  he  has  no 
right  whatever  to  call  it  his  policy.  It  is  the  policy 
6f  the  Democratic  party. 

I  wish  to  lay  before  the  House  a  proposition,  and 
I  beg  the  attention  of  Democratic  gentlemen  to 
it.  I  have  written  out  the  proposition  with  some 
care,  and  I  think  that  I  state  exactly,  and  I  hope 
not  unfavorably,  the  position  of  the  Democratic 
party  on  this  question.  The  proposition  is  this  :  — 

1.  The  Democratic  party  maintains  that  a  State 
of  the  American  Union  cannot  by  its  own  acts  sepa 
rate  itself  from  its  associate  States. 

2.  That  the  events  of  this  war,  including  the 
individual,  organized,  and  public  acts  of  the  people 
and  governments  of  the  eleven  rebellious  States, 
have  not  in  any  way  changed  the  constitutional  rela 
tions  which,  previous  to  the  war,  subsisted  between 


FOR   EQUALIZING   REPRESENTATION.  459 

those  people  and  States  on  the  one  hand  and  the  na 
tional  government  on  the  other  ;  and  as  a  conse 
quence, — 

3.  That  those  States  respectively,  and  the  people 
thereof,   have    an   immediate    and    unquestionable 
right  of  representation  ;    provided,  always,  that  in 
each  case  the  person  elected  now  is,  and  hereto 
fore  has  been,  loyal  to  the  government  and  a  sup 
porter  of  the  Constitution  of  the  country,  of  which 
fact  each  House  is  the  sole  judge  on  the  question  of 
the  right  of  a  claimant  to  a  seat ;  and  therefore,  — 

4.  That    no    legislation    or    amendment    of   the 
Constitution  is  necessary,  or  even  proper,  as  a  pre 
requisite  to  the  full  exercise  of  the  right  of  repre 
sentation  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  by 
the  people  and  States  lately  in  insurrection. 

Mr.  RANDALL,  of  Pennsylvania.  —  If  the  gentle 
man  will  insert  the  words  "  the  loyal  people,"  I 
think  he  will  state  the  position  some  Democratic 
gentlemen  take. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  That  is  the  difference  between 
the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  and  his  friend, 
Mr.  Stephens,  of  Georgia.  Possibly  there  may  be 
no  difference.  Stephens  insists,  that,  if  a  man  be 
loyal  to-day,  there  shall  be  no  inquiry  into  his  pre 
vious  character. 

Mr.  RANDALL,  of  Pennsylvania.  —  I  do  not  know 
by  what  authority  the  gentleman  classifies  me  with 
Mr.  Stephens. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  will  not  make  any  classifica 
tion  disagreeable  to  the  gentleman.  I  wish  to  ask 
whether  he  means,  by  the  word  "  loyal,"  a  man  who 
declares  himself  to  be  loyal  now,  or  does  he  propose 


460  THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   AMENDMENT 

to  ascertain  whether  the  man  has  heretofore  been 
loyal  ? 

Mr.  RANDALL,  of  Pennsylvania.  —  I  mean  to  say, 
on  the  question  of  representation,  that,  when  a  man 
comes  from  a  State,  competent  to  be  qualified  as  you 
and  I  have  qualified,  we  should  admit  him. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  That  is  a  proposition,  and  not 
an  answer  to  the  question. 

Mr.  RANDALL,  of  Pennsylvania.  —  The  gentleman 
has  urged  the  great  consistency  of  the  Democratic 
party.  If  he  will  allow  me,  I  will  send  to  the 
Clerk's  desk,  to  be  read,  a  portion  of  the  Chicago 
platform.  I  would  like  to  show  the  inconsistencies 
of  his  own  party. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  have  no  time  for  the  incon 
sistencies  of  any  party.  When  I  have  proved  the 
consistency  of  the  gentleman's  own  party,  I  think 
he  ought  to  be  satisfied.  They  have  been  consist 
ent  in  wrong-doing  as  far  as  the  interests  of  the 
country  are  concerned,  and  upon  this  point  I  make 
an  observation  which  I  desire  to  have  considered  in 
connection  with  the  distinction  with  which  I  pre 
face  it. 

I  do  not  say  that  every  man  who  supports  the 
propositions  which  I  have  stated  here  to-day  gave 
aid  and  comfort  to  the  rebellion,  and  participated  in 
treason  ;  but  the  converse  of  this  proposition  is  true, 
and  the  country  ought  to  notice  the  fact.  The  in 
stincts  of  men  are  higher  than  the  reason  of  men ; 
for,  through  the  instincts,  God  teaches  without  the 
intervention  of  fallible  logic  and  theories  of  reason. 
The  instincts  of  men  are  right  on  all  these  matters. 
The  affirmative  proposition  that  I  lay  down  is,  that, 


FOR   EQUALIZING   REPRESENTATION.  461 

as  far  as  there  is  any  testimony  before  the  country, 
every  traitor  of  the  South,  and  every  sympathizer 
with  treason  in  the  North,  sustains  the  policy  of  the 
Democratic  party  and  the  President.  That  is  an 
alarming  fact.  We  traverse  these  propositions,  and 
if  there  be  any  gentleman  upon  this  floor  not  iden 
tified  with  the  Democratic  party  who  still  sustains 
what  he  understands  to  be  the  executive  policy,  I 
will  offer  him  five  minutes  of  the  brief  time  remain 
ing  to  me  to  show  to  the  House  and  country  wherein 
the  policy  of  the  President  differs  from  the  ancient 
and  consistent  policy  of  the  Democratic  party. 

Mr.  RANDALL,  of  Pennsylvania.  —  I  will  show  the 
gentleman. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  The  gentleman  is  not  called 
upon. 

With  all  kindness,  I  desire  to  ask  my  friend  who 
represents  the  sixth  district  of  the  city  of  New  York 
[Mr.  Raymond]  whether  he  does  not  see  that  these 
propositions,  which  are  sustained  by  the  President 
and  the  Democrats  throughout  the  country,  if  car 
ried  into  effect  portend  the  destruction  of  the  gov 
ernment. 

First,  chiefly  we  traverse  the  Democratic  proposi 
tions  by  a  resolution  now  before  this  House  in  this 
particular.  We  demand  equality  of  representation 
based  upon  the  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise  by 
the  people.  The  proposition  in  the  matter  of  suf 
frage  falls  short  of  what  I  desire ;  but,  as  far  as  it 
goes,  it  tends  to  the  removal  of  the  inequality  at 
present  existing:  and,  while  I  demand  and  shall 
continue  to  demand  the  franchise  for  all  loyal  male 
citizens  of  this  country,  I  cannot  but  admit  the 


462  THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   AMENDMENT 

possibility  that  ultimately  those  eleven  States  may 
be  restored  to  representative  power  without  the 
right  to  vote  being  conferred  upon  the  colored  peo 
ple  ;  and  I  should  then  feel  myself  doubly  humili 
ated  and  disgraced,  and  criminal  even,  if  I  should 
neglect  to  do  what  is  in  my  power  in  behalf  of  a 
proposition  which  equalizes  representation. 

Can  any  party  or  any  man  defend  the  Democratic 
proposition  now  before  the  country  to  allow  the 
States  lately  in  rebellion  to  come  in  with  their  power 
undiminished,  so  that  two  rebel  soldiers,  whose 
hands  are  dripping  with  the  blood  of  our  fellow- 
men,  whose  opinions  as  to  the  right  of  this  govern 
ment  to  exist  are  unchanged,  shall  exercise  the 
political  power  of  three  loyal  Union  soldiers  ?  Yet 
the  gentlemen  who  support  this  proposition  ask  the 
country  to  accept  these  States  with  their  represen 
tation  undiminished.  And  those  echoing  the  lan 
guage  of  Alexander  H.  Stephens  are  unwilling  that 
the  Constitution  shall  be  amended  in  this  particular 
until  the  return  of  the  eleven  States,  thereby  ren 
dering  it  absolutely  impossible  that  there  shall  be 
any  adjustment  of  these  difficulties  after  the  return 
of  those  States. 

I  can  do  no  less  than  say  that  I  believe  that  the 
man,  of  whatsoever  party  or  State,  who  adopts  this 
proposition,  or  uses  his  influence  for  its  support  by 
the  people,  is  recreant  to  the  cause  of  justice,  of 
liberty,  and  of  humanity,  on  this  continent.  And 
yet  to  that  doctrine,  so  full  of  injustice  and  so  fla 
grant  in  principle,  the  Democratic  party  is  com 
mitted.  And,  in  this  hour  of  the  nation's  peril,  it  is 
our  sad  misfortune  that  we  are  compelled  to  admit 


FOR   EQUALIZING   REPRESENTATION.  463 

that  he  who  has  received  the  suffrages  of  a  generous 
people  for  the  second  office  in  the  gift  of  the  coun 
try  accepts  it  as  his  doctrine. 

The  justification  of  all  this  is  "  once  a  State, 
always  a  State ; "  that  there  is  no  power  in  the 
general  government  to  resist  this  policy ;  and  that 
we  who  say  that  nothing  shall  be  done  in  the  way 
of  restoration  to  political  power  to  those  States  until 
this  inequality  is  adjusted,  are  ourselves  disturbers 
of  the  public  peace,  and  advocates  of  disunion. 

Well,  sir,  I  am  for  a  Union,  but  for  that  Union 
only  in  which  there  is  substantial  justice  among  the 
men  and  between  the  States  composing  it.  I  accept 
one  fact,  and  no  gentleman  can  escape  the  force  of 
that  fact ;  and  that  is,  that  these  eleven  States  are 
not  to-day  represented  in  the  Congress  of  this  coun 
try,  and  with  my  consent  they  never  shall  be  until 
this  inequality  is  adjusted,  or  its  adjustment  pro 
vided  for.  That  is  the  fact.  How  it  has  come  to 
pass  that  they  are  not  represented  is  not  material 
to  the  business  we  have  in  hand.  I  accept  the  state 
ment  made  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  his  last  public  address, 
that  these  States  are  out  of  their  proper  practical 
relations  to  the  Union  ;  and  I  assert,  as  a  necessary 
and  natural  consequence,  that  they  cannot  get  into 
their  proper  relations,  except  by  our  consent  who 
represent  the  loyal  States  of  this  country.  This  is 
the  material  fact ;  and  it  is  wholly  unnecessary  at 
the  present  time  to  inquire  into  the  truth  or  falsity 
of  the  various  theories  which  have  been  presented 
on  the  subject. 

Some  objection  has  been  made  by  gentlemen  on 
this  side  of  the  House,  as  well  as  the  other,  to  the 


464  THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   AMENDMENT 

third  section  of  the  article  reported  by  the  commit 
tee.  I  freely  confess  that  the  adoption  of  the  third 
section  is  not  necessary  to  the  subject-matter  which 
we  have  in  hand.  My  own  views  of  reconstruction 
lead  me  in  the  opposite  direction.  I  should  prefer 
to  include  those  who  are  our  friends  rather  than 
exclude  even  those  who  are  our  enemies.  But  inas 
much  as  gentlemen  on  this  floor  are  not  prepared, 
as  they  say,  to  include  those  in  the  governing  force 
of  the  country  who  have  sustained  the  country,  I 
see  no  safety  for  the  present  except  in  some  sort  of 
exclusion  of  those  who  are  its  enemies.  We  are  to 
consider  what  sort  of  enemies  these  men  are.  We 
have  defeated  them  in  arms  ;  but,  in  the  proposition 
of  the  Democratic  party,  we  invite  them  to  the  only 
field  in  which  they  have  any  chance  of  success  in 
the  contest  in  which  they  have  been  engaged. 

They  have  been  beaten  ;  and  what  do  you  ask,  and 
what  do  you  offer  ?  You  ask  them  to  come  into  the 
councils  of  the  nation,  where  they  have  a  chance  of 
success,  and  where  the  only  chance  of  success  re 
mains.  Who  are  these  men  ?  They  are  the  men 
who  to-day  are  radically,  honestly,  persistently,  and 
religiously  opposed  to  this  government,  if  this  gov 
ernment  exercises  its  functions.  The  gentleman 
from  Wisconsin  [Mr.  Eldridge]  may  not  have  heard 
of  what  Mr.  Stephens  told  the  committee ;  and  who 
is  Mr.  Stephens  ?  Mr.  Stephens  was  believed  to  be 
the  most  conservative,  most  Union-loving  man  in 
the  whole  Southern  country ;  and,  if  the  opinions  to 
which  I  shall  refer  be  his  opinions,  with  how  much 
stronger  reason  may  we  infer  that  they  are  the  opin 
ions  of  those  to  whom  formerly  he  himself  was 


FOR  EQUALIZING  REPRESENTATION.      465 

somewhat  opposed !  What  does  he  tell  us  ?  He 
tells  us  that  in  1861  he  protested  against  the  action 
of  the  secessionists,  not  because  he  believed  that 
they  had  not  a  constitutional  basis  upon  which  to 
stand,  but  because  he  thought  secession  bad  policy, 
and  he  says  that  to-day  his  opinions  are  unchanged. 
That  is  to  say,  Mr.  Stephens  believes  that  this  gov 
ernment  has  no  right  to  exist,  if  the  insignificant 
State  of  Florida,  for  instance,  thinks  it  ought  not  to 
exist;  and  what  Mr.  Stephens  believes,  according 
to  his  own  testimony,  is  believed  by  the  great  ma 
jority  of  the  people  whom  he  represents  in  Georgia, 
and  in  various  portions  of  the  South,  and  whose 
views  he  understands.  These  are  the  men  that  you 
are  invited  to  receive  into  the  government  of  the 
country,  —  men  who  deny  the  right  of  this  govern 
ment  to  exist. 

It  is  said  by  gentlemen  on  the  other  side  of  the 
House,  that,  when  they  present  a  Representative  here, 
he  must  be  a  loyal  man.  I  need  not  say  to  gentle 
men  acquainted  with  the  technicalities  of  the  law, 
that  a  loyal  man,  for  all  purposes  of  representation, 
is  a  man  whose  disloyalty  cannot  be  proved.  When 
we  open  the  doors  of  the  Senate  and  of  this  House 
to  representatives  from  that  section  of  the  country, 
they  will  be  required  only  to  present  men  who  cannot 
be  convicted  of  having  participated  actively  and  will 
ingly  in  the  work  of  treason ;  but  they  may  send 
men  here  who  represent  treasonable  and  disunion 
opinions,  and  we  shall  have  no  power  to  protect  our 
selves  against  them.  When  ever  was  a  more  insidi 
ous  idea  presented  to  the  people  of  this  country  than 
that  there  is  any  security  in  demanding  merely  loyal 

30 


466  THE   CONSTITUTIONAL   AMENDMENT 

representatives  ?  We  are  false  to  our  duty  if  we 
do  not  go  further,  and  require  that  in  each  of  these 
States,  before  they  are  allowed  representation,  the 
masses  of  the  people  shall  be  loyal.  The  represent 
ative  will  reflect  the  views  of  the  people.  You 
cannot  "  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  this 
tles."  You  must  wait,  if  it  be  necessary  to  wait, 
until  there  is  a  loyal  controlling  public  sentiment  in 
each  one  of  these  States.  It  is  nothing  to  this 
country  that  Tennessee  sends  Mr.  Maynard,  a  loyal 
man,  here.  We  want  to  know  what  Tennessee  is ; 
and  the  circumstance  that  Mr.  Maynard  is  himself 
a  loyal  man,  if  his  State  is  not  loyal,  is  a  reason 
why  he  should  neither  ask  to  be  received  or  we  sub 
mit  to  his  admission.  And  it  is  not  sufficient  that 
there  be  loyal  districts  in  the  State.  A  State  is 
represented  in  the  Senate  and  in  the  House  as  a 
State.  There  is  no  constitutional  capacity  for  rep 
resentation  except  through  a  State  organization. 
Representatives  in  this  House  are  apportioned  by 
the  Constitution  among  the  several  States,  and  the 
State  is  necessarily  a  unit  for  the  election  of  Sena 
tors. 

When  we  find  that  Tennessee  is,  as  a  whole,  loyal 
to  the  government,  then  we  may  accept  Represen 
tatives  and  Senators  from  Tennessee,  and  trust  to 
the  people  to  send  loyal  men  here.  But  if  we  ac 
cept  Representatives  from  Tennessee  because  they, 
individually,  are  loyal,  while  Tennessee  herself  is 
disloyal,  she  will  soon  thrust  into  this  House,  and 
into  the  government  of  the  country,  disloyal  men. 
What  does  this  policy  portend?  Mr.  Stephens 
denies  the  constitutional  efficacy  of  our  amendment 


FOR  EQUALIZING  REPRESENTATION.  467 

abolishing  slavery.  He  says  that  slavery  has  been 
abolished  by  the  States,  implying  thereby  that  it  may 
be  re-established  by  the  States.  He  says  that  the 
law  taxing  the  people  of  this  country  has  no  consti 
tutional  force,  because  the  eleven  States  are  not  rep 
resented.  Do  you  not  see  that  his  insidious  and 
dangerous  doctrines,  which  are  responded  to  by  the 
whole  Democratic  party  of  the  country,  portend  the 
destruction  of  the  public  credit,  the  repudiation  of 
the  public  debt,  and  the  disorganization  of  society  ? 
We  are  the  conservative,  the  order-seeking,  the 
Union-loving,  the  loyal  men  of  the  country.  They 
who  oppose  measures  for  the  pacification  of  the 
country  with  reference  to  the  rights  of  the  States 
and  the  rights  of  individuals  are  the  disorganizers, 
the  disloyal  and  dangerous  men  of  the  republic. 

Sir,  it  will  be  found  that  the  Union  party  stands 
unitedly  upon  two  propositions.  The  first  is  equal 
ity  of  representation,  about  which  there  is  no  differ 
ence  of  opinion.  The  second  is,  that  there  shall  be 
a  loyal  people  in  each  applicant  State  before  any 
representative  from  that  State  is  admitted  into  Con 
gress.  And  there  is  a  third  :  a  vast  majority  of  the 
Republican  party,  soon  to  be  the  controlling  and  en 
tire  force  of  that  party,  demand  suffrage  for  our 
friends,  for  those  who  have  stood  by  us  in  our  days 
of  tribulation.  And  for  myself,  with  the  right,  of 
course,  to  change  my  opinion,  I  believe  in  the  con 
stitutional  power  of  the  government  to-day  to  ex 
tend  the  elective  franchise  to  every  loyal  male 
citizen  of  the  republic. 


468 


EQUALITY  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

A  SPEECH  DELIVERED  IN  FANEUIL  HALL,   MAY  31,  1866. 

ENTLEMEN,  —  I  am  in  a  good  degree  sur- 
prised  by  the  kind  reception  you  give  me,  and 
I  think  that  for  the  moment  you  must  have  for 
gotten  that  I  am  a  member  of  the  central  directory, 
an  organization,  as  I  understand,  dangerous  to  the 
peace  and  liberties  of  this  country.  In  connection 
with  the  organization  of  the  Committee  on  Recon 
struction  is  an  event  now  historical,  which  I  think 
was  a  chief  means  of  public  security  and  national 
life.  I  refer  to  the  resolution  adopted  by  the 
House  of  Representatives  on  the  first  day  of  its 
session,  declaring  that  no  Senator  or  Representative 
should  be  received  into  either  branch  of  Congress, 
until  the  right  of  the  State  from  which  the  person 
came  had  been  recognized  by  Congress,  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  President.  It  was  in  that  act 
that  we  raised  a  bulwark  against  all  the  efforts 
that  from  that  day  to  this  have  been  made  by  the 
executive,  by  corrupt  men,  by  parties,  and  by  presses, 
to  force  the  Congress  of  this  country  to  deal  with 
individuals,  instead  of  dealing  primarily  and  chiefly 
with  the  right  of  those  eleven  States  respectively  to 
be  represented  in  Congress. 

There  are  two  questions,  or  two  topics,  as  I  ob 
serve  from  the  responses  given,  in  which  you  have 


EQUALITY  OF  THE  NEGRO.  469 

a  special  interest.  One  is  the  punishment  of  the 
rebels,  and  the  other  is  the  recognition  of  the  rights 
of  the  colored  people  of  the  South.  As  far  as  I  can 
judge,  you  take  but  little  interest  in  all  the  other 
topics  presented  to  you.  In  regard  to  the  first, 
the  punishment  of  rebels,  you  may  as  well  content 
yourselves  with  the  belief  that  not  a  single  rebel  is 
to  be  in  any  manner  punished  as  a  criminal.  The 
most  that  can  be  expected  is  a  provision  like  that 
now  pending  for  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution 
disqualifying  certain  persons  from  holding  office, 
but  beyond  that  the  public  expectation  is  to  be  dis 
appointed.  We  have  waited  a  year  for  the  arraign 
ment  and  trial  of  the  leader  of  this  great  conspiracy  ; 
and  apparently  he  is  to-day  no  nearer  a  trial  than 
he  was  a  year  since,  although  there  is  no  legal 
obstacle  whatever  to  his  arraignment,  trial,  con 
viction,  and  sentence. 

In  regard  to  the  other  question,  the  rights  of  the 
men  of  the  South  who  have  been  heretofore  in 
slavery,  there  is  more  hope ;  and,  for  one,  I  believe 
that  this  government  is  never  to  be  reconstructed 
until  the  full  and  equal  rights  of  the  colored  people 
of  the  South  are  recognized  as  a  governing  force  in 
the  country.  When  I  say  that,  I  take  into  con 
sideration  all  the  incidents  and  the  ultimate  effect  of 
that  proposition.  I  do  not  expect  merely  a  general 
declaration  that  the  negro  is  to  be  equal  to  the 
white  man  before  the  law.  That  is  an  uncertain 
proposition.  I  do  not  know  exactly  what  it  means. 
I  go  further,  and  say  that  the  negro  is  to  exercise 
the  highest  privilege  of  the  free  man,  —  the  ballot ; 
and  I  expect,  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 


470         EQUALITY  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

exercise  of  that  privilege  of  a  free  man,  that  he  is  to 
be  elected  to  office.  There  are  those  among  us 
who  would  say  that  the  negro  is  to  enjoy  equal 
privileges  before  the  law.  Others  may  say  he  shall 
exercise  the  elective  franchise ;  but  when  we  admit 
that  he  is  to  exercise  the  elective  franchise,  we 
must  admit  that  he  is  to  be  eligible  to  office,  and,  if 
eligible  to  office,  in  the  course  of  years  he  will  be 
elected  to  office.  Are  you  prepared  for  that?  If 
you  are  not  prepared  for  that  result,  you  have  not 
accepted  the  great  principle  on  which  this  contest 
rests. 

The  last  time  that  I  stood  upon  this  platform  was 
after  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  in  the  early  autumn  of 
1864.  This  hall  was  then  thronged ;  and  before  me 
was  an  assemblage,  as  I  learned  afterwards,  com 
posed  of  an  organization  called  the  McClellan  Club 
of  this  city.  Enrolled  in  that  organization,  as  I 
saw  from  the  faces  before  me  and  inferred  from  the 
responses  given,  were  large  numbers  of  Irishmen. 
The  majority  of  them  were  natives  of  Ireland.  I 
do  not  see  many  of  them  here  to-day ;  but  at  this 
moment,  when,  from  private  information  and  public 
rumor,  it  is  understood  and  believed  that  the  Irish 
men  are  engaged  in  some  attempt,  the  exact  nature 
of  which  we  do  not  comprehend,  for  the  redemption 
of  their  native  land,  I  desire  to  make  an  observation 
to  them.  They  never  will  succeed,  they  never 
ought  to  succeed,  until  they  entertain  more  liberal 
views  of  the  rights  of  men  than  they  have  manifested 
as  citizens  of  this  country.  I  think  I  have  some  right 
to  make  this  observation,  because  in  1854  and  1855, 
when  the  entire  sentiment  of  the  State,  or  a  vast  pro- 


EQUALITY  OF  THE  NEGRO.          471 

portion  of  the  public  sentiment  of  the  State,  was 
arrayed  against  them  as  a  race  and  class,  I  took  no 
part  in  the  hostile  movements.  But  I  have  not  been 
an  inattentive  observer  of  passing  events.  They  have 
hated  despotism ;  but  they  have  hated  despotism,  as 
I  understand  them,  chiefly  because  they  suffered 
from  the  despotic  power  of  the  tyrant,  and  not 
because  they  loved  liberty.  When  the  Irish  people, 
and  when  our  own  people,  have  accepted  the  great 
truth,  that  it  is  not  enough  to  hate  the  tyrant,  but 
that  it  is  necessary  to  love  liberty  for  the  sake  of 
liberty,  then  we  and  they  will  have  a  just  right  to 
contend  for  liberty,  and  there  will  be  good  reason  for 
believing  in  our  success  in  the  contests  in  which  we 
are  engaged. 

I  may  as  well  in  this  connection  make  a  further 
remark  pertinent  to  Irishmen  and  to  our  own  people 
also  who  entertain  erroneous  opinions  concerning 
the  negro.  It  is  this :  If  I  were  to  ask  an  Irish 
man  why  he  left  Ireland  and  came  to  this  country, 
he  could  give  but  one.  answer.  He  would  say  that 
he  left  his  native  land  on  account  of  the  oppres 
sion  of  England.  The  oppression  of  England  has 
driven  three  million  of  Irishmen  from  Ireland  to 
this  continent.  Many  of  them  are  in  New  Eng 
land.  They  have  come  from  a  country  vastly 
superior  in  all  its  natural  resources  to  that  in 
which  they  are  dwelling.  It  has  a  better  climate, 
a  more  fertile  soil,  vast  mineral  resources  of  every 
sort,  water  power  sufficient  to  turn  the  entire 
machinery  of  Great  Britain,  fisheries,  harbors,  facili 
ties  for  commerce,  external  and  internal ;  and  yet 
they  have  come  from  Ireland  to  New  England, — 


472          EQUALITY  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

cold,  dreary,  cheerless  New  England.  Here  is  only 
a  barren  soil,  an  uninviting  climate.  What,  then, 
is  to  happen  hereafter?  We  have  been  told  and 
told,  by  high  authority  in  times  past,  that,  if  we 
emancipated  the  negroes,  they  would  come  North. 
The  real  fact  was,  that,  after  the  war  had  developed 
a  sentiment  of  liberty  in  the  negroes,  there  was  no 
way  of  keeping  them  in  the  South  except  to  eman 
cipate  them. 

The  people  must  now  look  at  this  fact  in  another 
of  its  relations.  If  you  do  not  do  justice,  or  see 
that  justice  is  done,  to  the  negro  where  he  is,  and 
where  he  chooses  to  remain,  he  will  come  where 
you  are.  Inasmuch  as  the  attractions  of  Ireland 
could  not  keep  Irishmen  there,  on  account  of  the 
oppression  of  Great  Britain ;  so,  if  you  permit  the 
oppression  of  the  negro  in  Tennessee  or  Virginia 
or  North  Carolina  or  South  Carolina,  he  will  come 
here.  Now,  my  friend  from  Ireland,  you  who  believe 
it  is  the  worst  of  things  that  the  negro  should  vote 
lest  he  should  be  your  equal,,  I  have  this  to  say  to 
you.  If  you  think  it  more  pernicious  to  your 
welfare  that  the  negro  should  vote  for  Mayor 
and  Aldermen  in  Charleston,  S.C.,  than  that  he 
should  come  upon  the  wharves  and  streets  in  this 
city,  and  compete  with  you  for  that  labor  with 
which  you  maintain  your  families,  take  your  choice, 
and  deprive  him  of  the  right  to  vote  in  Charleston, 
and  he  will  come  here ;  but,  if  you  give  him  his 
rights  where  he  is,  you  will  retain  whatever  rights 
and  privileges  you  now  enjoy.  Of  all  the  disgrace 
ful  facts  which  have  marked  the  annals  of  nations 
during  the  last  century,  there  is  nothing  more  to  be 


EQUALITY  OF  THE  NEGRO.         473 

reprobated,  nothing  which  will  be  more  severely 
and  justly  condemned  by  history,  than  the  character 
and  conduct  of  those  of  the  Irish  people  who  have 
come  here  to  enjoy  with  us  the  liberties  of  this  con 
tinent,  and  have  allied  themselves  with  the  traitors 
and  enemies  of  freedom,  to  some  extent  for  the 
overthrow  of  the  government  and  institutions  of 
the  country,  and  who  now  to-day  .lend  willing  aid 
to  those  who  seek  to  deprive  the  negro  of  his  just 
rights.  While  the  redemption  of  Ireland  from  the 
oppression  of  Great  Britain  commends  itself  to 
the  common  sense  and  affections  and  sympathies 
of  the  people  of  this  country,  you  of  the  Irish 
race  can  never  expect  to  enlist  our  sympathies  ac 
tively  in  your  behalf,  or  engage  our  co-operation 
or  secure  our  prayers,  until  you  show  your 
selves,  not  the  haters  of  tyranny  merely,  but  the 
lovers  of  liberty  as  well,  —  ready  to  aid  in  secur 
ing  for  other  men  those  rights  which  you  seek  for 
yourselves. 

[At  this  point  there  was  an  interruption  by  a  gen 
tleman  in  the  audience,  who  said,  "  I  am  an  Irish 
man,  and  I  am  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage.  I  should 
like  to  ask  if  Irishmen  have  not  fought  bravely  for 
the  liberties  of  this  country ;  if  they  have  not  been 
led  on  by  brave  men,  Sheridan  and  Thomas  Francis 
Meagher,  and  others,  who,  like  themselves,  were 
Irishmen."] 

My  young  friend  here  says  he  is  an  Irishman, 
and  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage.  All  the  better  for 
him.  I  have  not  complained  of  him,  or  of  those 
who  are  like  him,  but  of  those  of  his  countrymen 
who  have  here  enjoyed  those  privileges  which  he 


474         EQUALITY  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

enjoys,  but  who  have  not  redeemed  the  pledge 
which  in  effect  they  made  to  the  people  of  the 
country,  to  be  true  to  freedom  in  this  and  every 
crisis.  So  far  as  they  fought  under  Sheridan  and 
others,  all  honor  to  them ;  but  it  is  not  enough  that 
the  war  be  carried  on  upon  the  battle-field  only. 
The  contest  of  arms  is  over ;  but  we  approach  a 
greater  contest,  in  which  the  men  already  subdued 
in  arms  seek  to  enter  the  citadel  of  the  republic,  and 
seize  the  power  of  the  nation  for  the  perversion  of 
the  institutions  of  the  country  and  the  overthrow 
of  liberty.  I  complain,  not  that  Irishmen  did  not 
go  into  the  war  and  do  duty  on  the  battle-field, 
but  that  they  now  hesitate  and  allow  themselves 
to  be  made  the  instruments  of  the  ancient  allies  of 
traitors  for  the  overthrow  of  the  liberties  of  the 
people. 

There  are  many  topics  of  public  concern,  but  I 
shall  confine  myself  to  the  consideration  of  a  single 
other  subject.  It  is  this  :  There  are  now  pending  in 
Congress  certain  propositions  to  amend  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States.  Those  propositions 
seek  the  public  welfare  in  three  directions :  first, 
equality  of  representation  ;  secondly,  security  for  the 
future ;  thirdly,  to  some  extent  punishment  of  the 
rebels,  by  disqualifying  them  for  a  certain  time 
from  holding  office.  Many  of  you  know,  that,  as 
far  as  I  am  myself  concerned,  I  am  not  quite  con 
tent  with  these  propositions,  because  they  omit  to 
secure  suffrage  to  the  negro.*  I  say  here  what  I 
shall  have  occasion  to  say  elsewhere,  that  the  Repub 
lican  party  will  not  be  committed  to  the  admission 
of  the  rebel  States  upon  the  adoption  by  those 


EQUALITY  OF  THE  NEGRO.          475 

States  of  these  proposed  amendments  to  the*  Con 
stitution.  We  shall  demand  something  more,  and 
in  the  enforcement  of  that  demand  we  shall  be  reso 
lute  and  uncompromising.  We  shall  demand  that 
those  States  severally,  before  they  are  admitted  to 
representation  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  by  their  own 
fundamental  law,  shall  provide  for  the  enfranchise 
ment  of  the  negro.  We  shall  accept  nothing  less.  If 
the  work  of  reconstruction  is  to  be  performed  in  dis 
regard  of  the  negro's  rights,  it  is  a  work  so  unjust 
that  I  will  not  participate  in  it.  If  the  people  of 
this  country,  when  they  are  appealed  to  in  October 
and  November  next,  insist  on  this  work  being  done, 
they  must  provide  other  hands  than  mine  for  the 
doing  of  it.  I  am  assured  by  testimony  and  by 
statements  upon  which  I  rely,  that  whenever  Con 
gress  shall  say  that  Tennessee,  Arkansas,  and  North 
Carolina  can  be  admitted  if  they  provide  for  the 
exercise  of  the  elective  franchise  by  the  negro,  that 
that  provision  will  be  made.  There  are  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  Union  men  in  those  States 
who  know  perfectly  well,  that,  if  the  negro  does  not 
vote,  they  will  be  powerless  in  the  midst  of  rebels 
who  control  those  States.  They  only  desire  that 
Congress  shall  say,  You  must  do  this  before  your 
State  can  be  admitted,  and  they  will  proceed  to 
argue  with  and  induce  their  people  to  adopt  a 
system  of  impartial  franchise  for  black  and  white 
citizens.  Thus  the  adoption  of  the  proposed  amend 
ment  to  the  Constitution  is  but  part  of  the  work. 
More  remains  to  be  done.  And  my  chief  desire  has 
been  to  induce  you  and  the  people  of  the  State  to 
see  to  it,  that  no  arrangement,  no  compromise,  no 


476         EQUALITY  OF  THE  NEGRO. 

systetn  of  reconstruction,  is  adopted  or  agreed  to, 
which  does  not  recognize  the  right  of  the  negro  as 
a  citizen  of  the  State  where  he  is,  and  as  a  citizen 
of  the  country  to  which  he  belongs. 


47T 


THE  ADMISSION  OF  TENNESSEE. 


SPEECH  DELIVERED    IN    THE    HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES, 
JULY  20,  1866. 


nPHE  House  having  under  consideration  the  joint 
-*-  resolution  providing  for  the  admission  of  Sena 
tors  and  Representatives  from  Tennessee,  — 

Mr.  BOUTWELL  said :  — 

Mr.  Speaker,  —  I  am  not  ignorant  of  the  fact  that 
the  votes  of  the  House  already  taken  foreshow 
conclusively  its  purpose  to  pass  the  pending  joint 
resolution  for  the  admission,  of  Tennessee.  I  can 
see  many  reasons  which  operate  on  the  minds  of 
others,  as  they  do  upon  my  own  mind,  tending  to 
such  a  course ;  but,  after  the  most  careful  reflection 
during  months  and  years,  I  am  still  as  deeply  con 
vinced  as  ever  of  the  dangerous  nature  of  this 
proceeding.  While  I  am  conscious  that  my  voice 
falls  upon  unwilling  ears ;  that  it  is  the  fixed  pur 
pose  of  the  House,  in  the  presence  of  a  great  politi 
cal  struggle,  to  adopt  this  measure ;  and  though 
I  am  the  humblest  of  the  members  of  this  body, 
with  less  right  than  any  other  man  to  address  the 
country,  and  with  no  hope  whatever  that  my  words 
will  reach  posterity,  —  I  yet  avail  myself  of  the  kind 
ness  of  the  gentleman  who  has  charge  of  this 
resolution,  and  raise  my  voice  here  and  now,  and 
for  the  last  time,  against  the  consummation  of  this 
scheme. 


478  THE   ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE. 

This  morning  I  offered  an  amendment,  on  which, 
however,  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  BINGHAM] 
declined  to  allow  the  House  to  vote,  which  embod 
ies  my  opinions  concerning  the  admission  of  Ten 
nessee.  If  gentlemen  observed  the  language  of 
that  amendment,  they  are  aware  that  I  have  in 
some  degree  departed  from  my  own  settled  convic 
tions  as  to  the  right  of  all  men  to  the  enjoyment  of 
the  elective  franchise,  in  deference  to  what  I  under 
stand  to  be  the  judgment  of  the  majority  of  this 
House,  and  possibly  at  this  time  to  what  is  the 
judgment  of  the  loyal  people  of  the  country.  The 
resolution  that  I  proposed  provided  for  impartial 
suffrage  in  that  State  by  the  act  of  its  own  people, 
as  a  condition  precedent  to  its  admission  to  the 
exercise  of  power  in  the  government.  It  secured 
justice  to  the  colored  people  of  Tennessee  first,  and 
then  to  the  colored  people  of  the  revolted  and  still 
rebellious  section  of  this  country. 

I  am  not  troubled  by  the  informalities  apparent 
in  the  proceedings  of  the  Tennessee  Legislature 
upon  the  question  of  ratifying  the  constitutional 
amendment.  It  received  the  votes  of  a  majority  of 
the  members  of  a  full  House  ;  and,  when  the  proper 
officers  shall  have  made  the  customary  certificate 
and  filed  it  in  the  Department  of  State,  it  is  not 
easy  to  see  how  any  legal  objection  can  be  raised, 
even  if  two-thirds  of  the  members  were  not  present, 
and  although  that  proportion  is  a  quorum  accord 
ing  to  the  Constitution  of  the  State. 

My  objections  are  not  technical,  but  vital  and 
fundamental.  First,  the  constitution  which  they 
submit  here,  and  which  by  your  preamble  and  by 


THE   ADMISSION   OP   TENNESSEE.  479 

your  vote  you  declare  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  to  be  a  republican  form  of  government, 
is  not,  as  it  appears  to  me,  such  in  fact.  I  have  not 
time  now,  in  these  thirty  minutes,  to  trace  the  history 
of  the  opinions  entertained  by  the  founders  of  the 
republic  as  to  what  constitutes  a  republican  form 
of  government.  But,  if  they  identified  themselves 
with  any  opinion  or  idea  upon  this  subject,  it  was 
this :  that  whenever  powers  were  conferred  by 
hereditary  rules  upon  a  class  of  men,  or  whenever 
by  hereditary  rules  a  cfciss  of  men  were  excluded 
from  all  participation  in  the  government,  that  gov 
ernment  was  necessarily  anti-republican  in  form  as 
well  as  in  fact.  I  do  not  assert  that  it  is  necessary 
that  every  man  should  vote,  and  that,  a  government 
in  which  terms  and  conditions  are  imposed  is  neces 
sarily  anti-republican  :  but  the  terms  and  conditions 
must  be  reasonable ;  they  must  be  such  as  to  render 
it  not  only  possible,  but  probable,  that  the  great 
majority  will  be  able  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
the  law. 

What  is  this  House  to-day,  in  the  name  of  the 
people  of  this  country  and  under  the  Constitution, 
declaring  ?  That  a  State  Constitution  by  which 
more  than  eighty  thousand  male  citizens  are  for 
ever,  for  themselves  and  for  their  posterity,  de 
prived  of  all  part  in  the  government  of  that  State, 
is  republican  in  form.  Sir,  that  government  is  an 
aristocracy  ;  it  is  an  oligarchy ;  it  is  not  republican  ; 
it  is  not  democratic.  Wherever  a  man  and  his 
posterity  are  for  ever  disfranchised  from  all  partici 
pation  in  the  government,  that  government  is  not 
republican  in  form. 


480  THE   ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE. 

Next,  are  we  to  question  the  existence  of  the 
power  on  our  part  to  accomplish  that  which  I  now 
suggest  ought  to  be  accomplished,  —  the  enfran 
chisement  of  the  freedmen  of  Tennessee,  —  as  the 
beginning  of  the  great  work  of  reconstruction  upon 
a  republican  basis  ?  We  have  positive  power  with 
reference  to  the  States  that  have  been  in  rebellion, 
which  we  have  exercised  by  the  passage  of  the  act 
establishing  and  continuing  the  Freedmen's  Bureau, 
and  the  passage  of  the  Civil  Rights  Bill. 

I  do  not  now  discuss  fche  question  whether  we 
have  the  power  directly  to  enfranchise  the  negroes 
of  Tennessee  and  of  the  other  States  recently  in 
rebellion.  I  have  an  opinion  upon  the  question, 
but  I  offer  no  argument  in  its  support  at  the  pres 
ent  time.  I  believe  that  that  power  exists  in  Con 
gress  ;  but  now  I  appeal  to  the  negative  authority 
of  the  government,  that  we  may  reject  Tennessee, 
North  Carolina,  Arkansas,  until  they  perform  this 
act  of  justice  for  the  country,  for  the  negroes,  for 
themselves.  In  thus  requiring  an  additional  act  of 
justice  on  their  part  as  a  condition  precedent  to 
their  return  to  the  enjoyment  of  their  former  power 
in  the  country,  we  have  the  authority  of  President 
Lincoln,  of  President  Johnson,  and  of  numerous 
acts  of  this  Congress  and  of  the  last  Congress. 
We  have  exacted  conditions  precedent  to  the  ad 
mission  of  those  States  to  representative  power  in 
the  government  of  the  country.  Through  Presi 
dents  Lincoln  and  Johnson  the  country  insisted 
upon  the  ratification  of  the  amendment  abolishing 
slavery,  the  repudiation  of  the  rebel  debt ;  and  now 
we  demand,  even  in  the  case  of  Tennessee,  the 


THE   ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE.  481 

ratification  of  the  pending  amendment  to  the  Con 
stitution  equalizing  representation,  and  all  as  condi 
tions  precedent  to  the  exercise  of  power  in  the 
government.  With  equal,  if  not  with  more  justice, 
we  may  demand  an  impartial  system  of  suffrage . 

Nor  can  it  be  maintained  with  propriety  that  this 
exaction  shall  not  be  made,  because  there  are  States, 
exercising  their  full  functions  as  such,  in  which 
the  negroes  are  excluded  from  the  ballot-box. 
The  injustice  in  those  States  is  not  of  such  magni 
tude  as  to  endanger  the  peace  and  safety  of  the 
country ;  while,  in  the  case  of  the  rebellious  States 
there  seems  only  the  alternative  of  equal  suffrage 
through  the  demands  of  the  government  on  the 
one  hand,  and  civil  or  social  war  on  the  other. 
Hence,  while  we  may  condemn  the  exclusion  of 
negroes  from  the  ballot-box  in  States  now  represent 
ed  in  Congress,  there  may  be  no  public  necessity 
for  an  attempt  to  remedy  the  wrong  by  the  ac 
tion  of  the  general  government.  Moreover,  in  the 
case  of  the  loyal  States,  the  general  government 
cannot  apply  a  remedy  except  by  affirmative,  posi 
tive  action,  for  which  the  country  is  not  prepared, 
and  for  which  there  is  no  controlling  public  neces 
sity.  In  the  case  of  the  States  lately  in  rebellion, 
we  are  not  under  the  necessity  of  taking  affirma 
tive  legislative  action.  The  proceeding  on  our 
part  is  simply  and  wholly  within  the  domain  of  the 
precedents  cited  and  the  authority  of  the  Constitu 
tion.  The  abolition  of  slavery  by  the  Constitution 
has  given  a  new  meaning  to  the  phrase  "  republican 
government ;  "  for  it  is  now  settled  that  a  State  in 
which  slavery  exists  is  not  republican  in  form 

31 


482  THE   ADMISSION    OF   TENNESSEE. 

according  to  our  Constitution,  though  previous  to 
the  ratification  of  the  amendment  the  fact  may  have 
been  otherwise.  While  slavery  existed,  it  was  gen 
erally  true,  however,  that  all  free  citizens  were 
voters.  To  this  rule  there  were  some  exceptions, 
but  they  were  few  and  relatively  unimportant. 

I  proceed  now  to  consider  the  expediency  of 
this  measure.  There  are  in  Tennessee  not  less 
than  two  hundred  thousand  able-bodied  adult  male 
citizens ;  and  you  are  consenting  that  the  political 
power  of  that  State  shall  be  put  into  the  hands  of 
less  than  sixty  thousand.  By  the  Constitution  of 
Tennessee,  more  than  half  the  white  male  citizens 
of  that  State  are  disfranchised.  Of  this  I  do  not 
complain  ;  but,  in  addition  thereto,  eighty  thousand 
male  colored  citizens  of  the  State  are  also  disfran 
chised, —  making  an  aggregate  of  one  hundred  and 
forty  thousand  men  who  are  excluded  from  partici 
pation  in  the  government.*  The  sixty  thousand 
loyal  white  men  come  here,  and  ask  to  be  accepted 
as  a  State ;  and  you  are  solemnly  resolving,  in  the 
presence  of  the  country,  in  the  light  of  history,  and 
under  the  influence  of  the  traditions  of  the  republic, 
that  the  government  is  republican  in  form. 

What  do  you  invite  and  invoke  in  the  future  ? 
Do  you  suppose  that  these  sixty  thousand  rebels 
are  to  rest  quiet  under  their  exclusion  from  politi 
cal  power  in  the  government  of  that  State  for  any 
considerable  number  of  years  ?  Such  an  expecta 
tion,  if  entertained,  will  not  be  realized.  On  the 
other  hand,  this  action  invites  and  renders  neces 
sary  a  combination  between  the  eighty  thousand 
colored  -men  and  the  sixty  thousand  rebels.  The 


THE  ADMISSION  OF  TENNESSEE.  483 

rebels,  forgetting  their  past  prejudices,  and  the 
loyal  blacks,  forgetting  the  disloyalty  of  the  sixty 
thousand  rebels,  will  join  hands  and  overturn  the 
government  of  the  State.  And  what  you  are  doing 
to-day  for  Tennessee  you  jare  to  be  invited  hereafter 
to  do  for  the  other  ten  States  of  the  South.  There 
is  only  an  alternative.  It  is  in  this :  that  the  four 
million  colored  people  shall  escape  from  the  tyr 
anny  which  you  authorize  the  Southern  oligarchs  to 
exercise  over  them.  And  I  bid  the  people,  the 
working  people,  of  the  North,  the  men  who  are 
struggling  for  subsistence,  to  beware  of  the  day 
when  the  Southern  freedmen  shall  swarm  over  the 
borders  in  quest  of  those  rights  which  should  be 
secured  to  them  in  their  native  States.  A  just 
policy  on  our  part  leaves  the  black  man  in  the 
South,  where  he  will  soon  become  prosperous  and 
happy.  An  unjust  policy  forces  him  from  home, 
and  into  those  States  where  his  rights  will  be  pro 
tected,  to  the  injury  of  the  black  man  and  the 
white  man  both  of  the  North  and  the  South. 
Justice  and  expediency  are  united  in  indissoluble 
bonds ;  and  the  men  of  the  North  cannot  be  unjust 
to  the  former  slaves,  without  themselves  suffering 
the  bitter  penalty  of  transgression. 

I  ask  of  this  House  what  the  answer  is  to  be, 
when  the  other  ten  States  demand  recognition  and 
the  admission  of  members.  Do  you  say  they  shall 
not  be  admitted  on  the  terms  you  now  offer  to 
Tennessee  ?  What  other  terms  will  you  exact  of 
Arkansas,  North  Carolina,  and  South  Carolina? 
You  can  exact  none  in  addition  to  what  you  are 
now  exacting,  unless  you  demand  for  them  what  I 


484  THE   ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE. 

now  demand  for  the  people  of  Tennessee,  —  impar 
tial  suffrage  for  all  loyal  adult  male  citizens.  And, 
if  you  then  hesitate  to  meet  the  question  from 
which  you  now  shrink,  —  the  right  of  the  negro  to 
vote,  —  you  will  have  no  excuse  for  denying  full 
political  rights  to  the  other  ten  States.  Arkansas 
has  complied  with  the  conditions  named  in  the  pre- 
amble^to  the  resolution ;  and  you  have  no  excuse 
for  refusing  to  admit  Arkansas,  except  the  excuse  I 
now  offer  for  refusing  to  admit  Tennessee.  You 
will  have  again  upon  you  that  question  which  you 
so  much  dread,  but  which  cannot  be  postponed  and 
which  must  be  met,  whether  the  colored  men  of 
the  South,  once  in  slavery  but  now  free,  are  to  be 
endowed  with  the  rights  of  citizens  of  this  country. 
But  if  you  say  as  you  will  say,  unless  the  people 
rise  in  their  majesty  and  demand  justice  for  their 
suffering  fellow-men,  that  these  States  may  be 
admitted,  as  Tennessee  is  to-day  to  be  admitted, 
then  to  what  extremity  of  woe  have  you  re 
duced  the  country !  You  have,  as  the  result  of 
your  policy,  four  million  discontented  loyal  per 
sons  made  discontented  by  your  action.  You  have 
in  the  States  of  the  South  more  than  five  mil 
lion  discontented  rebellious  white  people.  You 
compel  these  classes,  naturally  enemies,  to  unite 
under  the  force  of  circumstances  which  now  you 
may  control  for  the  good  of  the  country ;  and  if,  as 
we  believe,  the  white  race  is  the  dominant  race,  at 
least  for  the  time  being,  in  intellect  and  intelli 
gence,  you  thus  give  to  the  rebel  class  of  the  South 
the  moral,  physical,  and  political  power  which  can 
be  derived  from  the  influence  they  will  exercise 


THE   ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE.  485 

over  the  four  million  blacks.  Does  any  one  believe 
the  blacks  are  to  be  exterminated  ?  The  old  fable 
of  Antaeus  is  founded  in  the  nature  of  man.  They 
who  labor  on  the  soil  never  yet  have  been  and 
probably  they  never  can  be  exterminated.  And 
consider,  further,  that  the  blacks  are  organized  into 
churches  ;  they  are  establishing  everywhere  schools  ; 
they  are  becoming  the  possessors  of  land ;  they 
have  military  knowledge.  Do  you  expect  that  such 
a  people,  though  yet  in  their  infancy,  are  to  be 
exterminated  ?  They  will  continue  to  exist ;  they 
will  thrive  even  under  oppression  ;  but  the  day  may 
come,  and  I  fear  it  may  come  soon  if  this  policy  be 
pursued,  when  they  will  assert  by  force,  and  by  dan 
gerous  combinations,  the  natural  rights  with  which 
they  have  been  by  God  endowed. 

And  what  do  you  offer  to  the  loyal  whites  of  the 
South  ?  You  offer  them  only  submission,  degrada 
tion,  or  expatriation.  Do  you  suppose  that,  when 
you  have  established  in  the  other  Southern  States 
governments  like  that  of  Tennessee,  in  which  the 
disloyal  whites  are  excluded,  and  the  loyal  blacks 
are  also  excluded,  the  loyal  whites  can  withstand 
for  a  moment  the  surging  waves  of  public  senti 
ment  which  will  rise  and  foam  and  rage,  however 
unjust  and  foul  their  origin  ?  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  negroes  are  permitted  to  vote,  even  in 
small  numbers  only  in  the  beginning,  they  naturally 
become  the  allies  and  friends  of  the  loyal  whites  of 
the  South ;  and  especially  will  they  be  our  friends 
in  any  future  controversy  involving  the  integrity  of 
the  Union.  No  country  can  afford  to  disregard  the 
rights  or  the  power  of  an  eighth  of  its  population ; 


486  THE   ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE. 

and,  above  all,  it  is  dangerous  for  this  government 
to  authorize  or  tolerate  an  unjust  policy  toward  so 
large  a  proportion  of  its  citizens. 

There  are  in  this  country  two  great  political  pub 
lic  wrongs,  one  of  which  you  have  taken  the  proper 
means  to  remedy  by  an  amendment  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  securing  to  a  white  man  in  the  North  equal 
political  power  with  a  white  man  in  the  South. 
We  are  agreed  upon  that.  When  a  white  man's 
rights  are  concerned,  there  is  no  difference  of  opin 
ion  upon  this  side  of  the  House  as  to'  the  necessity 
of  protecting  him.  But  there  is  another  great 
wrong,  for  which  you  make  no  provision,  offer  no 
remedy,  present  no  excuse ;  and  that  is  the  denial 
of  the  elective  franchise  to  the  black  men  of  the 
South. 

I  must  say  for  the  gentlemen  upon  the  other  side 
of  the  House  that  they  are  consistent  in  this  mat 
ter.  They  have  never  asserted  the  citizenship  of 
the  black  man ;  they  have  denied  it ;  they  have 
never  invited  him  into  the  army,  nor  called  upon 
him  to  fight  the  battles  of  the  republic.  They 
have,  as  far  as  they  had  the  power,  refused  his 
services  ;  and,  however  wrong  they  may  have  been, 
they  have  been  consistent  in  their  course.  But, 
upon  this  side  of  the  House,  it  is  otherwise.  We 
have  recently  passed  an  amendment  to  the  Consti 
tution,  to  be  submitted  to  the  States,  declaring  that 
negroes  are,  under  the  Constitution,  hereafter  to  be 
citizens ;  and  now,  when  we  have  the  power  to 
secure  for  them  the  rights  of  citizens,  we  are  silent. 
We  have  invited  them  into  the  armies  of  the  repub 
lic,  and  now  we  abandon  them  to  those  who  have 


THE   ADMISSION   OF   TENNESSEE.  487 

been  for  years  their  enemies  and  oppressors.  How 
are  we  to  reconcile  to  ourselves,  to  our  country, 
and  to  posterity  this  great  inconsistency  on  our 
part? 

I  am  as  much  attached  to  party  as  any  man  can 
be ;  but  the  jewel  of  the  Republican  party  is  its 
consistency,  based  upon  justice,  and  now  we  aban 
don  justice  and  accept  inconsistency  as  our  policy. 
Is  not  the  history  of  this  country  full  of  warning  ? 
I  will  not  mention  names ;  but,  from  1850  to  the 
close  of  the  rebellion,  the  pathway  of  ambition  for 
parties  and  for  men  has  been  strewn  right  and  left 
with  the  fragments  of  parties  and  the  remains  of 
politicians  that  have'  proved  false  to  justice,  to 
humanity,  and  to  republican  principles.  Do  you 
inquire  whether  these  States  are  to  be  for  ever 
excluded  ?  By  no  means.  We  have  assurances 
from  North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  Arkansas,  and 
Texas,  that,  if  this  Congress  will  but  demand  impar 
tial  suffrage,  the  people  of  those  States  who  are 
loyal  to  the  Union  will  enter  the  contest,  second 
the  demand  for  impartial  suffrage,  contend  for  it, 
and  ultimately,  as  they  believe,  they  will  secure  it. 
I  speak  under  the  impression,  the  firm  conviction, 
that  we  to-day  here  surrender  up  the  cause  of  just 
ice,  the  cause  of  the  country,  in  the  vain  hope  that 
the  admission  of  Tennessee  may  work  somewhat 
for  the  advantage  of  the  party  which  has  controlled 
the  country  during  these  last  six  years.  We  surren 
der  the  rights  of  four  million  people  ;  we  surrender 
the  cause  of  justice ;  we  imperil  the  peace  and 
endanger  the  prosperity  of  the  country ;  we  degrade 
ourselves  as  a  great  party  which  has  controlled  the 


488  THE  ADMISSION   OF  TENNESSEE. 

government  in  the  most  trying  times  in  the  history 
of  the  world.  Fortunate  will  it  be  for  us,  for  those 
whom  we  represent,  and  for  the  future  of  the  coun 
try,  if  these  apprehensions  shall  not  be  realized ; 
and,  humble  though  I  be,  but  in  the  full  conviction 
that  they  are  not  groundless,  I  enter  my  earnest 
protest  against  this  proceeding.  Believing  it  to  be 
wrong,  I  declare  my  convictions  in  the  presence  of 
those  who  have  the  power  to  prevent  the  wrong ;  and 
I  make  the  declaration  with  a  sense  of  responsibility 
such  as  has  never  before  rested  upon  me  in  any 
experience  of  my  life. 


489 


THE  USURPATION. 

[FROM  THE   "ATLANTIC  MONTHLY,"   OCTOBER,  1866.] 

npHERE  are  three  passions  to  which  public  men 
-•-are  especially  exposed, — fear,  hatred,  and  am 
bition.  Mr.  Johnson  is  the  victim  and  slave  of  all ; 
and,  unhappily  for  himself  and  unfortunately  for 
the  country,  there  is  no  ground  for  hope  that  he 
will  ever  free  himself  from  their  malign  influence. 

It  is  a  common  report,  and  a  common  report 
founded  upon  the  statements  of  those  best  ac 
quainted  with  the  President,  that  he  lives  in  contin 
ual  fear  of  personal  harm,  and  that  he  anticipates 
hostile  congressional  action  in  an  attempt  to  im 
peach  him  and  deprive  him  of  his  office.  He  best 
of  all  men  knows  whether  he  is  justly  liable  to 
impeachment ;  and  he  ought  to  know  that  Congress 
cannot  proceed  to  impeach  him,  unless  the  offences 
or  misdemeanors  charged  and  proved  are  of  such 
gravity  as  to  justify  the  proceeding  in  the  eyes  of 
the  country  and  the  world. 

There  is  nothing  vindictive  or  harsh  in  the  Amer 
ican  character.  The  forbearance  of  the  American 
people  is  a  subject  of  wonder,  if  it  is  not  a  theme 
for  encomium.  They  have  assented  to  the  pardon 
of  many  of  the  most  prominent  rebels ;  they  have 
seen  the  authors  of  the  war  restored  to  citizenship, 
to  the  possession  of  their  property,  and  even  to  the 


490  THE    USURPATION. 

enjoyment  of  patronage  and  power  in  the  govern 
ment  ;  and,  finally,  they  have  been  compelled, 
through  the  policy  of  the  President,  to  submit  to 
the  dictation,  and  in  some  sense  to  the  control,  of 
the  men  whom  they  so  recently  met  and  vanquished 
upon  the  field  of  battle.  The  testimony  of  Alex 
ander  H.  Stephens  everywhere  suggests,  and  in 
many  particulars  exactly  expresses,  the  policy  of 
the  President. 

Mr.  Stephens  asserts  that  the  States  recently  in 
rebellion  were  always  entitled  to  representation  in 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States ;  and  Mr.  John 
son  must  accept  the  same  position ;  for,  if  the  right 
were  once  lost,  it  is  impossible  to  suggest  how  or 
when  it  was  regained.  It  is  also  known,  that,  while 
the  Johnston-Sherman  negotiations  were  pending, 
Mr.  Davis  received  written  opinions  from  two  or 
more  persons  who  were  then  with  him,  and  acting 
as  members  of  his  Cabinet,  upon  the  very  question 
in  dispute  between  Congress  and  Mr.  Johnson, 
—  the  rights  of  the  then  rebellious  States  in  the 
government  of  the  United  States.  These  opinions 
set  up  and  maintained  the  doctrine  that  the  rebel 
States  would  be  at  once  entitled  to  representation 
in  the  government  of  the  country,  upon  the  ratifica 
tion  or  adoption  of  the  pending  negotiations.  It 
may  not  be  just  to  say  that  the  President  borrowed 
his  policy  from  Richmond;  but  it  is  both  just  and 
true  to  say  that  the  leaders  of  the  rebellion  have 
been  incapable  of  suggesting  a  public  policy  more 
advantageous  to  themselves  than  that  which  he  has 
adopted.  The  President  knows  that  the  people 
have  been  quiet  and  impartial  observers  of  these 


THE   USURPATION.  491 

proceedings  ;  that  the  House  of  Representatives  has 
never  in  public  session,  nor  in  any  of  its  caucuses 
or  committees,  considered  or  proposed  any  measure 
looking  to  his  impeachment. 

The  grounds  of  his  fear  are  known  only  to  him 
self;  but  its  existence  exerts  a  controlling  influence 
over  his  private  and  public  conduct. 

Associated  with  this  fear,  and  probably  springing 
from  it,  is  an  intense  hatred  of  nearly  all  the  recog 
nized  leaders  of  the  party  by  which  he  was  nomi 
nated  and  elected  to  office.  Evidence  upon  this 
point  is  not  needed.  He  has  exhibited  it  in  a 
manner  and  to  a  degree  more  uncomfortable  to  his 
friends  than  to  his  enemies,  in  nearly  every  speech 
that  he  has  made,  commencing  with  that  delivered 
on  the  22d  of  February  last. 

Superadded  to  these  passions,  which  promise  so 
much  of  woe  to  Mr.  Johnson  and  to  the  country,  is 
an  inordinate,  unscrupulous,  and  unreasoning  ambi 
tion.  To  one  theme  the  President  is  always  con 
stant  ;  to  one  idea  he  is  always  true,  — "  He  has 
filled  every  office,  from  that  of  alderman  of  a 
village  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States." 
He  does  not  forget,  nor  does  he  permit  the  world 
to  forget,  this  fact.  In  some  form  of  language,  and 
in  nearly  every  speech,  he  assures  his  countrymen 
that  he  either  is,  or  ought  to  be,  satisfied  with  this 
measure  of  success.  But  have  not  his  own  reflec 
tions,  or  some  over-kind  friend,  suggested  that  he 
has  never  been  elected  President  of  the  United 
States  ?  and  that  there  yet  remains  the  attainment 
of  this  one  object  of  ambition  ? 

Inauguration  day,  1865,  will  be  regarded  as  one 


492  THE   USURPATION. 

of  the  saddest  days  in  American  annals.  We  pass 
over  its  incidents ;  but  it  was  fraught  with  an 
evil  suggestion  to  pur  enemies,  and  it  must  have 
been  followed  by  a  firm  conviction  in  the  mind  of 
Mr.  Johnson  that  he  could  not  thereafter  enjoy  the 
confidence  of  the  mass  of  the  Republican  party  of 
the  country.  He  foresaw  that  they  would  abandon 
him,  and  he  therefore  made  hot  haste  to  abandon 
them.  And,  indeed,  it  must  be .  confessed  that 
there  was  scarcely  more  inconsistency  in  that  course 
on  his  part,  than  there  would  have  been  in  continu 
ing  his  connection  with  the  men  who  had  elected 
him.  His  nomination  for  the  Vice-Presidency  was 
an  enthusiastic  tribute  to  his  Union  sentiments; 
beyond  a  knowledge  of  these,  the  Convention  neither 
had  nor  desired  to  have  any  information.  Mr. 
Johnson  was  and  is  a  Union  man ;  but  he  was  not 
an  anti-slavery  man  upon  principle.  He  was  a 
Southern  State-Rights  man.  He  looked  upon  the 
national  government  as  a  necessity,  and  the  exer 
cise  of  any  powers  on  its  part  as  a  danger.  His 
political  training  was  peculiar.  He  had  carried  on 
a  long  war  with  slaveholders,  but  he  had  never 
made  war  upon  slavery.  He  belonged  to  the  poor 
white  class.  In  his  own  language,  he  was  a  plebe 
ian.  The  slaveholders  were  the  patricians.  He 
desired  that  all  the  white  men  of  the  South,  and  of 
Tennessee  especially,  should  be  of  one  class,  —  all 
slaveholders,  all  patricians,  if  that  were  possible ; 
and  he  himself,  for  a  time,  became  one.  Failing 
in  this,  he  was  satisfied  when  all  became  non-slave 
holders,  and  the  patrician  class  ceased  to  exist. 
Hence,  as  far  as  Mr.  Johnson's  opinions  and  pur- 


THE   USURPATION.  493 

poses  are"  concerned,  the  war  has  accomplished 
every  thing  for  which  it  was  undertaken.  The 
Union  has  been  preserved,  and  the  patrician  class 
has  been  broken  down. 

Naturally,  Mr.  Johnson  is  satisfied.  On  the  one  , 
hand,  he  has  no  sympathy  with  the  opinion  that  the 
negro  is  a  man,  and  ought  to  be  a  citizen ;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  he  shares  not  in  the  desire  of  the 
North  to  limit  the  representation  of  the  South  so 
that  there  shall  be  equality  among  the  white  men  of 
the  country.  He  is  anxious  rather  to  increase  the 
political  strength  of  the  South.  He  fears  the  grow 
ing  power  of  the  North.  The  same  apprehension 
which  drove  Calhoun  into  nullification,  and  Davis, 
Stephens,  and  others  into  rebellion  and  civil  war, 
now  impels  Mr.  Johnson  to  urge  the  country  to 
adopt  his  policy,  which  secures  to  the  old  slavehold- 
ing  States  an  eighth  of  the  political  power  of  the 
nation,  to  which  they  have  no  just  title  whatever. 
To  the  North  this  is  a  more  flagrant  political  injus 
tice  than  was  even  the  institution  of  slavery.  He 
once  expressed  equal  hostility  towards  Massachu 
setts  and  South  Carolina,  and  desired  that  they 
should  be  cut  off  from  the  main  land,  and  lashed 
together  in  the  wide  ocean.  The  President  appears 
to  be  reconciled  to  South  Carolina ;  but,  if  the 
hostility  he  once  entertained  to  the  two  States  had 
been  laid  upon  Massachusetts  alone,  he  ought  to 
have  felt  his  vengeance  satisfied  when  her  repre 
sentatives  entered  the  Philadelphia  Convention  arm 
in  arm  with  the  representatives  of  South  Carolina, 
assuming  only,  what  is  not  true,  that  the  sentiment 
of  Massachusetts  was  represented  in  that  Conven- 


494  THE  USURPATION. 

tion.  As  a  perfect  illustration  of  the  President's 
policy,  two  men  from  Massachusetts  should  have 
been  assigned  to  each  member  from  South  Carolina, 
as  foreshowing  the  future  relative  power  of  the 
,  white  men  of  the  two*  States  in  the  government  of 
the  country.  The  States  of  the  North  and  West 
will  receive  South  Carolina  and  the  other  rebel 
States  as  equals  in  political  power  and  rights,  when 
ever  those  States  are  controlled  by  loyal  men ;  but 
they  are  enemies  to  justice,  to  equality,  and  to  the 
peace  of  the  country,  who  demand  the  recognition 
of  the  rebel  States  upon  the  unequal  basis  of  the 
the  existing  Constitution. 

Of  these  enemies  to  justice,  equality,  and  the 
peace  o"f  the  country,  the  President  is  the  leader 
and  the  chief;  and,  as  such  leader  and  chief,  he  is 
no  longer  entitled  to  support,  confidence,  or  even 
personal  respect.  He  has  seized  upon  all  the 
immense  patronage  of  this  government,  and  avowed 
his  purpose  to  use  it  for  the  restoration  of  the 
rebel  States  to  authority,  regardless  of  the  rights 
of  the  people  of  the  loyal  States.  He  has  thus 
become  the  ally  of  the  rebels,  and  the  open  enemy 
of  the  loyal  white  men  of  the  country.  The  Presi 
dent,  and  those  associated  with  him  in  this  unholy 
project,  cannot  but  know  that  the  recognition  of  the 
ten  disloyal  States  renders  futile  every  attempt  to 
equalize  representation  in  Congress.  The  assent 
of  three-fourths  of  the  States  is  necessary  to  the 
ratification  of  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution. 
The  fifteen .  old  slave  States  are  largely  interested 
in  the  present  system,  and  they  will  not  consent 
voluntarily  to  a  change.  The  question  between  the 


THE   USURPATION.  495 

President  and  Congress  is,  then,  this :  Shall  the  ten 
States  be  at  once  recognized,  —  thus  securing  to  the 
old  slave  States  thirty  Eepresentatives  and  thirty 
electoral  votes  to  which  they  have  no  title ;  or  shall 
they  be  required  to  accept,  as  a  condition  precedent, 
an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  which  provides 
an  equal  system  of  representation  for  the  whole 
country?  It  is  not  enough,  in  the  estimation  of 
the  President,  that  the  loyal  people  should  receive 
these  enemies  of  the  Union  and  murderers  of  their 
sons  and  brothers  as  equals ;  but  he  demands  a 
recognition  of  their  superiority  and  permanent  rule 
in  the  government  by  a  voluntary  tender  of  an 
eighth  of  the  entire  representative  force  of  the 
republic.  When  before  were  such  terms  ever  ex 
acted  of  the  conqueror  in  behalf  of  the  conquered  ? 
If  the  victorious  North  had  demanded  of  the  van 
quished  South  a  surrender  of  part  of  its  representa 
tive  power  in  the  government,  as  a  penalty  for  its 
treason,  that  demand  would  have  been  sustained 
upon  the  principles  of  justice,  although  the  proceed 
ing  would  have  been  unwise  as  a  measure  of  public 
policy.  As  it  is,  the  victorious  North  only  demands 
equality  for  itself,  while  it  offers  equality  to  the 
vanquished  South.  Was  there  ever  a  policy  more 
just,  wise,  reasonable,  and  magnanimous  ? 

Yet  the  President  rejects  this  policy,  deserts  the 
loyal  men  of  the  North  by  whom  he  was  elected, 
conspires  with  the  traitors  in  the  loyal  States  and 
the  rebels  of  the  disloyal  States  for  the  humiliation, 
the  degradation,  the  political  enslavement,  of  the 
loyal  people  of  the  country.  And  this  is  the  second 
great  conspiracy  against  liberty,  against  equality, 


496  THE   USURPATION. 

against  the  peace  of  the  country,  against  the  perma 
nence  of  the  American  Union ;  and  of  this  conspir 
acy  the  President  is  the  leader  and  the  chief.  Nor 
can  he  defend  himself  by  saying  that  he  desires  to 
preserve  the  Constitution  as  it  was,  for  he  himself 
has  been  instrumental  in  securing  an  important 
alteration.  "  The  Constitution  as  it  was "  has 
passed  away,  and  by  the  aid  of  Mr.  Johnson. 

Nor  can  he  say  that  he  is  opposed  to  exacting 
conditions  precedent;  for  he  made  the  ratification 
of  the  anti-slavery  amendment  a  condition  prece 
dent  to  his  own  recognition  of  their  existence  as 
States  clothed  with  authority.  Thus  is  he  wholly 
without  proper  excuse  for  his  conduct.  Nor  can  he 
assert  that  the  rebel  States  are,  and  ever  have  been, 
States  of  the  Union,  and  always  and  ever  entitled 
to  representation  and  without  conditions ;  for  then 
is  he  guilty  of  impeachable  offences  in  demanding 
of  them  the  ratification  of  the  constitutional  amend 
ment,  in  dictating  a  policy  to  the  Southern  States, 
in  organizing  provisional  governments,  in  inaugu 
rating  constitutional  conventions,  in  depriving  offi 
cers  elected  or  appointed  by  authority  of  those 
States  of  their  offices,  and,  in  fine,  in  assuming  to 
himself  supreme  authority  over  that  whole  region 
of  country  for  a  long  period  of  time.  Thus  his 
only  defence  of  his  present  policy  contains  an 
admission  that  he  has  usurped  power,  that  he  has 
violated  the  Constitution,  that  he  is  guilty  of  offences 
for  which  he  ought  to  be  impeached.  Thus  do 
the  suggestions  which  the  President  tenders  as  his 
defence  furnish  conclusive  evidence  that  his  conduct 
is  wholly  indefensible. 


THE   USURPATION.  497 

While,  then,  the  President  cannot  defend  his  con 
duct,  it  is  possible  for  others  to  explain  it. 

Its  explanation  may  be  found  in  some  one  or  in 
several  of  the  following  propositions  :  — 

1.  That  the  rebel  leaders  have  acquired  a  control 
over  the    President,   through   the   power   of  some 
circumstance    not    known    to    the    public,    which 
enables  them  to  dictate  a  policy  to  him. 

2.  That  he  fears  impeachment,  and  consequently 
directs  all  his  efforts  to  secure  more  than  a  third  of 
the  Senate,  so  as  to  render  a  conviction  impossible. 

3.  That  he  seeks  a  re-election,  and  purposes  to 
make  the  South  a  unit  in  his  favor,  as  the  nucleus 
around  which  the  Democratic  party  of  the  North 
must  gather  in  1868. 

4.  That  he  desires  to  re-instate  the  South  as  the 
controlling  force  in  the  government  of  the  country. 

In  reference  to  the  first  proposition,  we  are  re 
stricted  to  the  single  remark,  that  it  is  not  easy  to 
imagine  the  rebels  capable  of  making  any  demand 
upon  the  Executive  which,  in  his  present  state  of 
mind,  he  would  not  be  prepared  to  grant.  He  has 
pardoned  many  of  the  leaders  and  principal  men  of 
the  rebellion,  and  some  of  them  he  has  appointed 
to  office.  He  has  resisted  every  attempt  on  the 
part  of  Congress  to  furnish  protection  to  the  loyal 
men  of  the  South,  and  he  has  witnessed  and  dis 
cussed  the  bloody  horrors  of  Memphis  and  New 
Orleans  with  cold-blooded  indifference.  Early  in 
his  term  of  office,  he  offered  an  immense  reward 
for  the  person  of  Jefferson  Davis  ;  and  now  that  the 
accused  has  been  in  the  official  custody  of  the 
President,  as  the  head  of  the  army,  for  more  than 

32 


498  THE   USURPATION. 

fifteen  months,  he  has  neither  proclaimed  his  inno 
cence  and  set  him  at  liberty,  nor  subjected  him  to 
trial  according  to  the  laws  of  the  land.  Davis  is 
guilty  of  the  crime  of  treason.  Of  this  there .  can 
be  no  doubt.  He  is  indicted  in  one  judicial  district. 
The  President  holds  the  prisoner  by  military  au 
thority  ;  and  the  accused  cannot  be  arraigned 
before  the  civil  tribunals.  Davis  was  charged  by 
the  President  with  complicity  in  the  assassination 
of  Mr.  Lincoln.  There  is  much  evidence  tending 
to  sustain  the  charge ;  but  the  accused  is  neither 
subjected  to  trial  by  a  military  commission,  nor 
turned  over  to  the  civil  tribunals  of  the  country. 
These  acts  are  offences  against  justice ;  they  are 
offences  against  the  natural  and  legal  rights  of  the 
accused,  however  guilty  he  may  be ;  they  are 
offences  against  the  honor  of  the  American  people ; 
they  are  acts  in  violation  of  the  Constitution.  If 
the  elections  of  1866  are  favorable  to  the  Presi 
dent,  they  will  be  followed  by  the  release  of  Davis, 
and  the  country  will  see  the  end  of  this  part  of 
the  plot. 

Upon  any  view  of  the  President's  case,  it  is 
evident  that  he  has  thrown  himself  into  the  arms 
of  the  South,  and  that  his  personal  and  political 
fortunes  are  identified  with  Southern  success  in 
the  coming  contest.  He  claims  to  stand  upon  the 
Baltimore  platform  of  1864,  and  to  follow  in  the 
footsteps  of  President  Lincoln.  The  enemies  of 
President  Lincoln  are  reconciled  to  this  assumption, 
by  the  knowledge  that  Mr.  Johnson's  counsellors 
are  the  Seymours,  Yallandigham,  Yoorhees,  and 
the  Woods.  Mr.  Johnson,  under  these  evil  influ- 


THE   USURPATION.  499 

ences  of  opinion  and  counsel,  has  succeeded  in 
producing  a  division  of  parties  in  this  country 
corresponding  substantially  to  the  division  which 
Demosthenes  says  existed  in  Greece  when  Philip 
was  engaged  in  his  machinations  for  the  overthrow 
of  the  liberties  of  that  country.  "  All  Greece  is 
now  divided  into  two  parties,  —  the  one  composed 
of  those  who  desire  neither  to  exercise  nor  to .  be 
subject  to  arbitrary  power,  but  to  enjoy  the  benefits 
of  liberty,  laws,  and  independence ;  the  other,  of 
those  who,  while  they  aim  at  an  absolute  command 
of  their  fellow-citizens,  are  themselves  the  vassals 
of  another  person,  by  whose  means  they  hope  to 
obtain  their  purposes." 

The  Republican  party  desires  liberty,  independ 
ence,  and  equal  laws  for  all  people :  the  presidential 
party  seeks  to  oppress  the  negro  race,  to  degrade 
the  white  race  of  the  North  by  depriving  every  man 
of  his  due  share  in  the  government  of  the  country, 
and,  finally,  to  subject  all  the  interests  of  the 
republic  to  the  caprice,  policy,  and  passions  of  its 
enemies. 

The  presidential  party  is  composed  of  traitors  in 
the  South  who  had  the  courage  to  fight,  of  traitors 
in  the  North  who  had  not  the  courage  or  opportu 
nity  to  assail  their  government,  of  a  small  number 
of  persons  who  would  follow  the  fortunes  of  any 
army  if  they  could  be  permitted  to  glean  the  offal 
of  the  camp,  and  a  yet  smaller  number  who  are 
led  to  believe  that  any  system  of  adjustment  is 
better  than  a  continuance  of  the  contest. 

The  presidential  party  controls  the  patronage 
of  the  government ;  and  it  will  be  used  without 


500  THE  USURPATION. 

stint  in  aid  of  the  scheme  to  which  the  President 
is  devoted. 

It  only  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  courage, 
capacity,  and  virtue  of  the  people  are  adequate  to 
the  task  of  overthrowing  and  crushing  the  conspi 
racy  in  its  new  form  and  under  the  guidance  of  its 
new  allies.  The  Republican  party  carries  on  the 
contest  against  heavy  odds,  and  with  the  fortunes 
of  the  country  staked  upon  the  result. 

One  hundred  and  ninety-one  men  have  been 
recognized  as  members  of  the  present  House  of 
Representatives.  There  are  fifty  vacancies  from 
the  ten  unrecognized  States  ;  consequently  a  full 
House  contains  two  hundred  and  forty-one  mem 
bers.  One  hundred  and  twenty-one  are  a  majority, 
—  a  quorum  for  business,  if  every  State  were  rep 
resented.  Of  the  present  House,  it  is  estimated 
that  forty-six  members  are  supporters  of  the  Presi 
dent's  policy.  If  to  these  we  add  the  fifty  members 
from  the  ten  States,  the  presidential  party  would 
number  ninety-six,  or  twenty-five  only  less  than  a 
majority  of  a  full  House,  No  view  can  be  taken 
of  the  present  House  of  Representatives  more 
favorable  to  the  Republican  party,  —  possibly  the 
President's  force  should  be  increased  to  forty-eight 
men.  It  is  worthy  of  observation,  that  neither  the 
Philadelphia  Convention  nor  the  President  has 
breathed  the  hope  that  the  Republicans  can  be 
deprived  of  a  majority  of  the  members  from  the 
loyal  States.  The  scheme  is  to  elect  seventy-one  or 
more  men  from  the  loyal  States,  and  then  resort  to 
revolutionary  proceedings  for  the  consummation  of 
the  plot.  The  practical  question  —  the  question  on 


THE  USURPATION.  501 

which  the  fortunes  of  the  country  depend  —  is, 
Will  the  people  aid  in  the  execution  of  the  plot 
contrived  for  their  own  ruin  ?  Upon  the  face  of 
things,  we  should  say  that  it  is  highly  improbable 
that  the  new  party  can  make  any  important  gains  ; 
indeed,  it  seems  most  improbable  that  the  President 
can  survive  the  effect  of  his  own  speeches.  But  we 
must  remember  that  he  is  supported  by  the  whole 
Democratic  party,  and  that  that  party  cast  a  large 
vote  in  1864,  and  that  in  1862  the  Republican 
majority  in  the  House  was  reduced  to  about 
twenty. 

In  the  Thirty-eighth  Congress  the  Democratic 
party  had  ten  or  fifteen  more  votes  than  are  now 
needed  to  secure  the  success  of  the  present  plot. 
To  be  sure,  the  elections  of  1862  occurred  at  the 
darkest  period  of  the  war.  The  young  men  of  the 
Republican  party  were  in  the  army,  and  but  a  small 
number  of  them  had  an  opportunity  to  vote.  There 
was  still  hope  that  a  peace  could  be  made  through 
the  agency  of  the  Democratic  party.  These  circum 
stances  were  all  unfavorable  to  the  cause  of  the  pa 
triots.  • 

The  Democratic  party  is  now  weaker  than  ever 
before.  Its  identity  with  the  rebellion  is  better  un 
derstood.  The  young  men  of  the  country,  in  the 
proportion  of  three  to  one,  unite  themselves  with 
the  Republican  party.  As  an  organization,  consid 
ered  by  itself,  the  Democratic  party  is  utterly  pow 
erless  and  hopeless. 

The  defection  of  Mr.  Johnson,  however,  inspires 
the  leaders  with  fresh  courage.  It  is  possible  for 
them  to  enjoy  the  patronage  of  the  government  for 


502  THE   USURPATION. 

two  years  at  least,  and  it  is  barely  possible  for  them 
to  secure  the  recognition  of  the  ten  rebel  States,  or, 
in  equivalent  words,  the  ten  Democratic  States,  to 
the  Union. 

This  combination  is  formidable  ;  but  its  dangerous 
nature  is  due  to  the  facts  that  Mr.  Seward's  name 
and  means  of  influence  are  still  powerful  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  and  that  he  has  joined  himself 
to  the  new  party  and  become  an  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  designing  men  for  the  organization  of 
another  rebellion.  Outside  of  New  York,  Mr.  John 
son's  gains  in  the  elections  will  be  so  small  that  the 
Union  majority  will  remain  substantially  as  in 
the  present  Congress  ;  nor  can  we  conceive  that  the 
gains  in  that  State  will  be  adequate  to  the  necessi 
ties  of  the  conspirators.  It  is  probable  that  the  un 
dertaking  will  prove  a  failure :  but  it  should  never 
be  forgotten  that  the  country  is  in  peril ;  that  it  is 
in  peril  in  consequence  of  the  uncertain  political 
character  of  the  State  of  New  York ;  and  that  that 
uncertain  character  is  justly  attributable  to  the  con 
duct  of  Mr.  Seward.  If,  then,  Mr.  Johnson  succeed 
in  the  attempt  to  change  the  character  of  this  gov 
ernment  by  setting  aside  the  Congress  of  the  loyal 
States,  Mr.  Seward  will  be  responsible,  equally  with 
Mr.  Johnson,  for  the  crime. 

Reverting  to  the  statement  already  made,  that 
neither  Mr.  Johnson  nor  any  of  his  supporters  can 
even  hope  to  secure  a  majority  of  the  members  elect 
ed  from  the  States  represented  in  the  present  Con 
gress,  it  only  remains  for  us  to  consider  more 
specifically  the  scheme  of  revolution  and  usurpation 
in  which  these  desperate  men  are  engaged.  The 


THE   USURPATION.  508 

necessary  preliminary  condition  is  the  election  of 
seventy-one  members  of  Congress  from  the  twenty- 
six  States.  To  these  will  be  added  fifty  persons 
from  the  ten  unrepresented  States,  making  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty-one,  or  a  majority  of  Congress  if 
all  the  States  were  represented.  This  accomplished, 
the  way  onward  is  comparatively  easy. 

When  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  re-assembles  in 
December  next,  Mr.  Johnson  and  his  Cabinet  may 
refuse  to  recognize  its  existence,  or,  recognizing 
it  as  a  matter  of  form,  deny  its  legitimate  au 
thority. 

He  would  summon  the  members  of  the  Fortieth 
Congress  to  assemble  in  extra  session  immediately 
after  the  4th  of  March.  Fifty  persons  would  ap 
pear  claiming  seats  as  representatives  from  the  ten 
States.  The  Republicans  would  deny  their  right  to 
seats,  —  the  supporters  of  the  President  would 
maintain  it.  The  supporters  of  the  President,  aided 
directly  or  indirectly  by  the  army  and  police,  would 
take  possession  of  the  hall,  remove  the  Clerk,  and 
organize  the  assembly  by  force. 

Whether  this  could  be  done  without  bloodshed  in 
Washington  and  elsewhere  in  the  North  remains  to 
be  seen ;  but  as  far  as  relates  to  the  organization  of 
the  House,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  success 
of  the  undertaking.  We  should  then  see  a  united 
South  with  the  President  at  the  head,  and  a  divided 
North  ;  the  army,  the  navy,  the  treasury,  in  the 
hands  of  the  rebels.  This  course  is  the  necessity 
of  Mr.  Johnson's  opinions  and  position.  It  is  the 
natural  result  of  the  logic  of  the  rebels  of  the  South 
and  of  the  Democratic  party  of  the  North.  Mr. 


504  THE   USURPATION. 

Johnson  believes  that  the  present  Congress  intends 
to  impeach  him  and  remove  him  from  office.  Admit 
that  this  fear  is  groundless,  yet,  if  he  entertains  it, 
he  will  act  as  he  would  act  if  such  were  the  pur 
pose  of  the  two  Houses.  Hence  he  must  destroy 
the  authority  of  Congress.  Hence  he  arraigns  its 
members  as  traitors.  Hence  he  made  the  signifi 
cant,  revolutionary,  and  startling  remark,  in  his 
reply  to  Reverdy  Johnson  as  the  organ  of  the  Phila 
delphia  Convention,  "  We  have  seen  hanging  upon 
the  verge  of  the  government,  as  it  were,  a  body  called, 
or  which  assumed  to  be,  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  but  in  fact  a  Congress  of  only  a  part  of  the 
States."  This  is  a  distinct,  specific  denial  of  the 
right  of  Congress  to  exist,  to  act,  to  legislate  for 
the  country.  It  is  an  impeachment  of  all  our  public 
doings  since  the  opening  of  the  war,  of  all  our 
legislation  since  the  departure  of  Davis  and  his 
associates  from  Washington.  It  is  an  admission  of 
the  doctrine  of  secession ;  for,  if  the  departure 
of  Davis  and  his  associates  rendered  null  and  void 
the  authority  of  Congress,  then  the  government, 
and  of  course  the  Union,  ceased  to  exist.  The  con 
stitutional  amendment  abolishing  slavery  is  void ; 
the  loan  acts  and  the  tax  acts  are  without  authority  ; 
every  fine  collected  of  an  offender  was  robbery  ;  and 
every  penalty  inflicted  upon  a  criminal  was  itself  a 
crime.  The  President  may  console  himself  With 
the  reflection  that  upon  these  points  he  is  fully  sup 
ported  by  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  late  Vice-Presi- 
dent  of  the  so-called  Confederacy. 

We  quote  from  the  report  of  his  examination  be 
fore  the  Committee  on  Reconstruction. 


THE   USURPATION.  505 

"  Question.  Do  you  mean  to  be  understood,  in  your  last 
answer,  that  there  is  no  constitutional  power  in  the  gov 
ernment,  as  at  present  organized,  to  exact  conditions  pre 
cedent  to  the  restoration  to  political  power  of  the  eleven 
States  that  have  been  in  rebellion? 

"  Answer.  That  is  my  opinion. 

"  Question.  Assume  that  Congress  shall,  at  this  session, 
in  the  absence  of  Senators  and  Representatives  from  the 
eleven  States,  pass  an  act  levying  taxes  upon  all  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States,  including  the  eleven,  is  it  your 
opinion  that  such  an  act  would  be  constitutional  ? 

"  Answer.  I  should  doubt  if  it  would  be.  It  would  cer 
tainly,  in  my  opinion,  be  manifestly  unjust,  and  against  all 
ideas  of  American  representative  government." 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  these  two  authorities  concur 
in  opinion ;  although  it  must  be  confessed  that  the 
late  Vice-President  of  the  so-called  Confederate 
States  in  urbanity  of  manner  and  in  the  art  of  diplo 
macy  far  surpasses  the  late  Vice-President  (as  Mr. 
Johnson,  if  his  logic  does  not  fail  him,  must  soon 
say)  of  the  so-called  United  States. 

Having  thus  impeached  the  existing  Congress  and 
denied  its  authority,  the  way  is  clear  for  the  organi 
zation  of  a  Congress  into  which  members  from  the 
ten  States  now  excluded  shall  be  admitted. 

Representatives  who  do  not  concur  in  these  pro 
ceedings  will  have  only  the  alternative  of  taking 
seats  among  the  usurpers,  and  thus  recognizing 
their  authority,  or  of  absenting  themselves  and  ap 
pealing  to  the  people.  The  latter  course  would  be 
war,  —  civil  war,  with  all  the  powers  of  the  govern 
ment,  for  the  time  being,  in  the  hands  of  the  usurp 
ers.  The  absenting  members  would  be  treated  as 


506  THE   USURPATION. 

rebels,  and  any  hostile  organization  would  be  re 
garded  as  treasonable.  Thus  would  the  rebels  be 
installed  in  power,  and  engaged  in  conducting  a 
war  against  the  people  of  the  North  and  West. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  representatives  from  the 
West  and  North  should  deem  it  wiser  to  accept 
the  condition,  and  await  an  opportunity  to  appeal  to 
the  country,  how  degrading  and  humiliating  their 
condition  !  They  might  for  a  time  endure  it ;  but 
finally  the  people  of  the  North  would  rise  in  their 
might,  and  renew  the  war  with  spirit  and  power, 
and  prosecute  it  until  the  entire  rebel  element  of 
the  country  should  be  exterminated.  The  success 
of  Mr.  Johnson  in  the  elections  is  to  be  followed, 
then,  by  usurpation  and  civil  war.  It  means  this, 
or  it  means  nothing.  The  incidents  of  the  usurpa 
tion  would  be,  first,  that  the  old  slave  States  would 
secure  thirty  Representatives  in  Congress  and  thirty 
electoral  votes,  or  an  eighth  of  the  government,  to 
which  they  have  no  title  whatever  unless  the  ne 
groes  should  be  enfranchised,  of  which  there  would 
be  then  no  probability ;  and,  secondly,  that  two 
white  men  in  the  South  would  possess  the  political 
power  of  three  white  men  in  the  North.  The  results 
of  the  usurpation  would  be  strife  and  civil  war  in 
the  North,  and,  finally,  the  overthrow  of  the  usurp 
ers  by  force,  to  be  followed,  possibly,  by  an  extermi 
nating  war  against  the  rebel  population  of  the 
South. 

Already  has  one  of  Mr.  Johnson's  agents  an 
nounced  the  usurpation  in  substance,  and  tendered 
to  the  country  a  defence  in  advance  of  the  commis 
sion  of  the  crime.  The  defence  is  simple  and  logi- 


THE   USURPATION.  507 

cal.  Congress  refuses  to  receive  the  members  from 
ten  States.  Those  States  have  the  same  immediate 
right  of  representation  as  the  other  States.  Con 
gress  is,  therefore,  a  revolutionary  body.  Any  pro 
ceeding  which  secures  the  right  of  all  the  States 
to  be  represented  immediately  is  a  constitutional 
proceeding.  This  is  intelligible.  Alexander  H. 
Stephens  is  the  author  of  this  cardinal  doctrine  of 
the  presidential  party.  On  the  other  hand,  Con 
gress  maintains  that  enemies  vanquished  in  war, 
though  formerly  citizens  and  equals,  cannot  dictate 
the  terms  of  adjustment ;  nor  even  enjoy  the  privi 
leges  of  a  Constitution  which  they  have  violated  and 
sought  to  destroy,  without  a  compliance  with  those 
terms  which  the  loyal  people  may  deem  essential  to 
the  public  safety. 

The  issue  is  well  denned.  Shall  the  Union 
be  restored  by  usurpation,  with  its  attendant  polit- 
tical  inequality  and  personal  injustice  to  loyal 
people,  and  consequent  civil  war,  or  by  first  secur 
ing  essential  guaranties  for  the  future  peace  of 
the  country,  and  then  accepting  the  States  recently 
in  rebellion  as  equals,  and  the  people  of  those 
States  as  friends  and  citizens  with  us  of  a  common 
country  ? 

The  question  is  not  whether  the  Union  shall  be 
restored :  the  Republican  party  contemplates  and 
seeks  this  result.  But  the  question  is,  Shall  the 
Union  be  restored  by  usurpation,  —  by  a  policy  dic 
tated  by  the  rebels,  and  fraught  with  all  the  evils 
of  civil  war?  The  seizure  of  the  government  in 
the  manner  contemplated  by  Johnson  and  his  asso 
ciates  destroys  at  once  the  public  credit,  renders 


508  THE  USURPATION. 

the  public  securities  worthless  for  the  time,  over 
throws  the  banking  system,  bankrupts  the  trading 
class,  prostrates  the  laborers,  and  ends,  finally,  in 
general  financial,  industrial,  and  social  disorder. 


509 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC 
AFFAIRS. 

AN      ADDRESS     DELIVERED     BEFORE     THE     MERCANTILE     LIBRARY 
ASSOCIATION,  BOSTON,  WEDNESDAY  EVENING,  NOV.  7,  1866. 

WHEN  I  accepted  the  invitation  of  your  com 
mittee,  it  was  implied,  if  not  expressed, 
that  I  should  discuss  passing  political  topics ;  and 
you  will  naturally  expect  me,  in  the  beginning,  to 
declare  with  emphasis  the  satisfaction  we  all  feel 
that  certain  grave  questions  concerning  the  fortunes 
of  the  country  have  been  settled  by  the  judgment  of 
the  people,  at  the  October  and  November  elections. 
But  I  think  I  ought  not  to  omit  to  express  the  obli 
gations  which  are  due  from  us  to  two  persons,  whose 
names  have  not,  as  far  as  I  know,  been  often,  or  per 
haps  ever,  associated  together,  to  whom  we  are 
largely  indebted  for  these  successes.  I  refer  to  Mr. 
Seward,  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  to  "Nasby,"  of 
the  "  Toledo  Blade,"  both  of  whom,  with  undiscrimi- 
nating  zeal,  have  supported  the  policy  of  the  Presi 
dent,  —  although  some  persons  suspect  that  they  are 
both  satirists.  Those  gentlemen,  in  the  profusion  of 
their  arguments  in  behalf  of  the  executive  policy, 
have  convinced  nearly  every  person  who  has  listened 
to  the  one,  or  read  the  productions  of  the  other,  of 
the  unsoundness  of  that  policy  which  they  have 
undertaken  to  maintain. 


510        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

In  connection  with  the  recent  elections  and  their 
results,  there  are  two  facts  which  ought  not  to  pass 
without  observation.  One  is,  that  by  very  meagre 
majorities  we  have  carried  the  great  States  of  Penn 
sylvania  and  New  York.  In  the  latter  State,  in  a 
vote  probably  not  much  less  than  three-fourths  of 
a  million,  we  have  maintained  the  ascendency  of  the 
Republican  party,  and  secured  the  election  of  a 
Union  man  for  Governor,  by  a  majority  not  exceed 
ing  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  voters,  —  not  more 
than  two  per  cent  of  the  entire  voting  force  of  that 
State.  This  fact  shows  conclusively  that  the  con 
test  is  not  yet  over,  that  the  battle  is  to  be  fought 
on  other  fields  and  with  other  issues.  The  second 
great  fact  is,  that  the  State  of  Maryland,  one  of 
the  border  States,  —  a  State  in  which  more  has  been 
done  than  in  any  other  of  the  border  States,  except, 
possibly,  Missouri,  —  has  surrendered,  under  the 
influence  of  the  President  and  Governor  Swann,  to 
rebel  associations  and  to  rebel  control.  While  this 
result,  as  far  as  Maryland  is  concerned,  was  not 
unexpected,  I  regard  it  as  the  omen  of  a  happy 
future,  in  the  conclusion  I  reach  that  the  people 
of  this  country  cannot  long  be  blind  to  the  great 
truth,  that  there  is  no  security  for  republican  princi 
ples  or  for  the  prevalence  of  Union  sentiments 
in  any  State  which  during  this  century  has  been 
cursed  by  the  institution  of  slavery,  except  in  rally 
ing  the  entire  force  of  that  State  to  the  support  of 
the  Union  and  of  free  government. 

The  subject  on  which  I  speak  to-night,  is  not 
novel,  and  my  plan  of  discourse  is  simple.  I  shall 
discuss  the  topic  announced,  —  "  Policy  and  Justice 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        511 

in  Public  Affairs."  By  "  policy,"  I  mean  that  course 
of  conduct  which  proceeds  from  the  opinions  of  men, 
with  reference  to  what  it  may  seem  to  them  wise  to 
do  under  a  given  condition  of  things,  without  regard 
to  the  justice  of  their  proceedings.  Said  Mr.  Burke, 
a  long  time  ago,  "  Justice  is  the  great  standing  pol 
icy  of  civil  society  ;  and  any  eminent  departure  from 
it  under  any  circumstances  lies  under  the  suspicion 
of  being  no  policy  at  all."  One  of  the  most  eminent 
men  of  antiquity  declares  that  "  it  is  not  possible  to 
found  a  lasting  government  upon  injustice,  perjury, 
and  treachery.  These  may  succeed  for  once,  and 
borrow  for  a  while  from  hope  a  gay  and  flourishing 
appearance  ;  but  time  soon  reveals  their  weakness, 
and  they  fall  into  ruin  of  themselves.  As  in  every 
structure  the  lowest  parts  should  be  the  firmest, 
so  the  grounds  and  principles  of  all  our  actions 
should  be  just  and  true."  We  shall  learn,  if  we 
have  not  been  taught  the  lesson  sufficiently  already, 
that  it  is  not  possible  in  government  to  discard  just 
ice,  and  rely  upon  mere  human  policy. 

There  are  in  governments,  and  in  the  affairs  of 
government,  three  forms  which  injustice  may  take. 
First,  it  may  be  recognized  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
government  itself ;  secondly,  in  the  policy  of  the  gov 
ernment  with  reference  to  domestic  affairs ;  and, 
lastly,  in  the  policy  of  the  government  in  its  foreign 
relations.  I  propose,  in  the  first  place,  to  call  your 
attention  to  a  few  signal  instances  of  the  effects  of 
injustice  in  the  conduct  of  nations,  chiefly  in  their 
domestic  affairs,  with  the  design  of  gathering  there 
from,  if  possible,  some  force  of  .argument  by  which 
I  may  dissuade  you  from  the  purpose,  if  purpose  you 


512        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

have,  of  re-establishing  this  government  upon  the 
principles  of  manifest  injustice. 

Some  of  us  have  not  forgotten  the  story  of  the 
partition  of  Poland ;  and  we  know  very  well,  that, 
from  the  time  of  its  partition,  the  Poles,  exiles  from 
their  native  land,  have  been  the  enemies,  in  every 
capital  in  Europe,  of  the  governments  that  partici 
pated  in  or  sanctioned  that  injustice.  They  have 
been  the  promoters  of  revolution,  and  the  disturbers 
of  the  public  peace  everywhere.  We  remember,  also, 
the  injustice  of  Austria  in  respect  to  Hungary  ;  and 
it  does  not  require  any  stretch  of  the  imagination  to 
accept  the  inference,  that,  in  the  recent  conflict  be 
tween  Austria  and  Prussia,  the  power  of  Austria  to 
resist  the  demands  and  the  material  forces  of  Prussia 
was  very  much  diminished  by  the  circumstance  that 
she  did  not  enlist  heartily  the  support  of  the  Hun 
garian  portion  of  her  empire.  We  know  very  well, 
too,  the  injustice  of  England  towards  Ireland.  For 
many  centuries,  England  has  been  unjust  in  every 
particular  to  the  Irish  people ;  and  now  we  see,  that 
not  only  are  there  disorder  and  violence  in  Ire 
land,  but  that  the  disaffection  extends  to  this  coun 
try,  and  disturbs  the  British  possessions  on  the 
American  continent.  It  is  also  true  that,  at  a  more 
recent  period,  England,  desiring  to  see  us  prostrated 
under  the  power  of  the  rebellion,  lent  herself  to  the 
support  of  the  rebels,  and  contributed,  indirectly, 
to  the  destruction  of  our  commerce  upon  the  ocean. 
Through  the  policy  of  Great  Britain,  piratical  corsairs 
were  put  afloat,  sailing  under  the  flag  of  the  Confed 
erate  States,  with  no  port  into  which  they  could 
enter,  no  prize  court  anywhere  which  could  adjudge 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        513 

whether  the  prizes  taken  by  those  corsairs  were  legal 
prizes  or  not ;  establishing,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  new 
principle  of  maritime  law,  —  that  the  man  who  walks 
the  quarter-deck  may  decide  whether  the  prize  he 
takes  is  lawfully  captured  or  not ;  and  Great  Britain 
to-day  is  powerless  relatively,  because  she  consented 
to  and  permitted  that  unjust  policy  in  maritime 
affairs.  She  is  not  able  to  make  war  upon  any 
nation  that  has  a  single  port.  Nay,  more  than  that : 
if  there  be  a  nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe  that 
has  not  a  port,  and  that  nation  should  engage  in  a 
contest  with  Great  Britain,  she  may  employ  the 
maritime  capacity  of  the  United  States,  or  of  any 
other  commercial  power,  and  drive  British  com 
merce  from  the  ocean.  Great  Britain  has  not  the 
capacity  to  maintain  her  population  from  her  own 
soil,  and  hence  she  is  dependent,  for  her  supply  of 
bread,  upon  her  commercial  resources.  When 
Prussia  and  Austria  combined  for  the  purpose  of 
wresting  Schleswig  and  Holstein  from  Denmark, 
England  was  disposed  to  resist  the  wrong.  She 
was  finally  compelled,  however,  to  withdraw  from 
the  contest ;  for  she  saw  that  Prussia  and  Austria, 
acting  upon  her  own  rules  of  maritime  law,  could, 
either  directly  or  indirectly,  put  afloat  privateers 
or  quasi  ships  of  war,  that  would  drive  her  com 
merce  from  the  seas.  Great  Britain  cannot  regain 
her  position  as  a  maritime  nation  until  she  recedes 
from  her  doctrine  in  regard  to  the  "  Alabama  "  and 
the  "  Shenandoah,"  compensates  this  country  for  the 
losses  we  have  sustained,  and  incorporates  into  the 
maritime  law  of  the  world  a  provision  which  shall 


514        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

at  once  discard  and  denounce  the  policy  on  which 
she  acted  during  the  rebellion. 

In  another  instance,  a  longer  time  ago,  England 
suffered  by  a  similar  unjust  policy.  Our  ancestors, 
prior  to  the  Revolution,  contended,  as  they  had  a 
right  to  contend  under  the  principles  of  the  feudal 
law,  that  they  were  a  self-governing  people,  inde 
pendent  of  Parliament,  having  here  their  properly 
and  legally  constituted  representative  assemblies, 
with  the  king  at  the  head  of  the  colonial  govern 
ments,  as  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  government  at 
home.  The  Parliament  of  Great  Britain  under 
took  to  assert  a  different  principle,  and  to  maintain 
that  the  colonies  here  were  subject  to  the  people 
and  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  contrary  to  the 
charters,  and  contrary  to  the  principles  of  the  feu 
dal  system.  This  injustice  led  to  the  Revolution, 
and  to  the  separation  of  the  American  colonies 
from  the  British  government. 

We,  in  our  own  experience,  have  had  a  signal 
illustration  of  the  impolicy  of  injustice  in  the  gov 
ernment.  In  the  years  1787,  1788,  and  1789,  when 
our  ancestors  were  framing  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  the  pretension  was  set  up  by  two 
of  the  States  particularly,  —  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  —  that  slavery  should  be  recognized  by  the 
Constitution ;  that  twenty  years  should  be  allowed 
for  the  importation  of  such  persons  as  any  State 
chose  to  import ;  and,  by  the  general  consent  of  the 
country,  three-fifths  of  the  people  who  were  held  as 
slaves  in  the  slave  States  were  counted  as  of  the 
basis  of  representation.  The  result  of  that  arrange 
ment  was,  as  we  very  well  know,  that  for  forty 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        515 

years  at  least,  from  1820  to  1860,  there  was  no 
union  between  the  States  of  the  North  and  of  the 
South.  The  tendency  of  the  government  was  to  dis 
union,  to  separation,  to  division,  and  war.  Finally, 
the  result  came  which  was  inevitable  from  the  first, 
—  division,  war,  conflict,  and  the  sacrifices  through 
which  the  people  have  passed. 

If  we  can  gather  any  instruction  from  this  ex 
perience  of  our  own,  or  from  the  experience  of 
other  countries,  we  ought  to  accept  the  lesson 
which  is  taught,  and  resolve,  now  and  for  ever, 
that  this  government  shall  not  be  reconstructed 
except  upon  the  principles  of  justice.  It  is  with 
that  end  in  view  that  I  speak  to-night.  Jus 
tice  in  the  constitution  of  a  government  tends  to 
justice  and  unity  in  its  administration.  Injustice 
in  government  tends  constantly  to  division  of 
opinion,  diversity  of  ideas,  conflict  of  policies,  and 
finally  to  war.  Reconstruction  of  the  government 
implies  that  in  some  way  or  other  it  has  been 
broken ;  it  implies  separation ;  it  implies  division ; 
it  implies  that  there  are  parts  of  the  nation  that 
are  not  in  their  ordinary  and  accustomed  relations 
to  the  whole ;  and  it  implies  the  right,  on  the  part 
of  those  sections  that  are  performing  their  ordinary 
functions,  to  judge  of  the  time  when,  and  the  cir 
cumstances  under  which,  the  other  parts  are  to  be 
restored  to  their  former  relations.  I  have,  in  times 
past,  discussed  the  legal  condition  of  the  revolted 
and  rebel  States  to  the  government  of  the  country. 
For  one,  I  discuss  that  question  no  longer.  I 
am  disposed  to  accept  the  existing  facts,  without  a 
particular  inquiry  as  to  the  legal  relations  which 


516        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

these  ten  States  sustain  to  the  government.  There 
are  certain  things  which  we  know  perfectly  well. 
We  know  that  in  1861  the  Senators  and  Represent 
atives  from  these  States  went  out  of  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States ;  that  they  organized  another 
government ;  that  they  confederated  themselves, 
contrary  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ; 
that  for  four  years  and  more  they  carried  on  a  war, 
by  sea  and  by  land,  against  this  government ;  and 
that  during  all  that  period  of  time,  and  until  now, 
they  have  not  been  represented  in  the  Government 
of  the  United  States.  I  accept  the  facts,  and  there 
upon  I  maintain  that  they  are  not  to  be  represented 
until  the  people,  and  the  representatives  of  the 
people,  who  are  loyal  to  this  government,  consent 
that  they  shall  be  represented. 

In  the  work  of  reconstruction,  there  are  four 
classes  of  people  who  are  specially  to  be  considered. 
They  are,  first,  the  loyal  people  of  the  North.  The 
constitutional  amendments  which  have  been  pro 
posed  by  Congress,  and  which  have  been  sanctioned 
by  the  people  in  these  elections,  furnish  protection, 
as  far  as  constitutional  provisions  can  furnish 
protection,  to  the  represented  States.  I  may  make 
a  remark  here  which  I  think  not  out  of  place. 
The  constitutional  amendments  may  now  be  con 
sidered  as  the  settled  policy  of  the  country.  The 
men  who  have  voted  to  sustain  Congress  in  this 
contest  have  unquestionably  declared  that  noth 
ing  less  than  the  adoption  of  the  constitutional 
amendments  shall  be  accepted  as  a  condition  pre 
cedent  to  the  restoration  of  those  States  to  the 
Union.  Of  that  there  can  be  no  doubt.  But  it  is 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        517 

worthy  of  observation,  that,  on  the  day  when  Ten 
nessee  was  admitted  into  the  Union,  by  the  vote  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  a  proposition  to 
declare,  that,  whenever  either  of  the  other  ten  States 
ratified  these  constitutional  amendments,  such  State 
should  be  admitted,  was  laid  on  the  table  by  a 
decisive  majority.  This  action  indicated  very  dis 
tinctly,  that,  while  the  members  of  Congress  were 
agreed  that  nothing  less  than  the  ratification  of  the 
constitutional  amendments  should  be  accepted,  they 
were  not  prepared  to  say  that  nothing  more  should 
be  demanded.  In  1861  Congress  passed  a  resolu 
tion,  declaring  that  the  war  was  prosecuted  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  restoring  the  Union ;  and  now, 
since  the  fall  of  Richmond,  since  the  surrender  of 
Lee,  since  the  overthrow  of  the  Confederacy,  and  the 
prostration  of  the  rebel  power  at  every  point,  men 
appear,  and  say,  "  In  1861  you  said  that  you 
were  prosecuting  the  war  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
restoring  the  Union ;  and  now  that  you  have  an 
opportunity  to  restore  the  Union,  and  these  States 
are  all  ready  to  return,  you  refuse  to  receive  them." 
And  they  talk  about  "  betrayal  of  confidence  "  and 
"  breach  of  trust "  !  It  is  a  case  very  much  like 
this.  I  have  a  controversy  with  my  neighbor  as  to 
the  title  to  a  piece  of  land,  and  he  offers  me  a  thou 
sand  dollars  for  my  claim,  whatever  it  may  be.  I 
refuse  to  accept  it ;  a  suit  is  instituted  and  pros 
ecuted,  as  far  as  the  law  will  allow  it  to  be  pros 
ecuted  ;  the  verdict  of  the  jury  and  the  judgment 
of  the  court  are  against  me ;  and  then  I  turn 
around  and  say,  "  I  have  concluded  to  receive  the 
thousand  dollars  you  offered  me  at  the  beginning 


518        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

of  the  controversy,  and  give  you  a  title  to  the 
land."  My  antagonist  will  say  very  properly,  "  You 
are  too  late.  I .  made  the  offer  originally  for 
the  purpose  of  avoiding  further  controversy.  You 
refused  my  terms.  You  are  vanquished,  and  I 
shall  now  assert  my  rights."  We  made  the  propo 
sition  to  the  South  in  the  hope  that  it  would  be 
accepted.  But  there  can  be  no  pretence  for  asking 
us  now,  after  prosecuting  the  war  at  such  expense, 
to  accept  a  reconstruction  of  the  Union  on  the 
basis  of  the  proposals  of  1861.  So,  during  the  war, 
Mr.  Lincoln,  in  September,  1862,  issued  his  monitory 
proclamation  to  the  South,  that  if,  in  one  hundred 
days,  the  people  did  not  lay  down  their  arms  and 
return  to  the  Union,  he  would  proclaim  the  eman 
cipation  of  all  the  slaves.  They  treated  the  propo 
sition  with  scorn ;  and  on  the  1st  of  January,  1863, 
the  proclamation  was  issued.  Legally,  all  the 
slaves  were  then  emancipated ;  and  when  the  rebel 
armies,  in  April  and  May,  1865,  surrendered,  eman 
cipation  became  an  accomplished  fact.  And  yet, 
in  Virginia,  they  are  taking  a  census  of  the  slaves, 
as  they  were  held  in  1863,  and  estimating  their 
value ;  intending,  whenever  they  have  an  oppor 
tunity,  with  the  help  of  their  Northern  allies,  to 
put  their  hands  into  the  public  treasury  and  com 
pensate  themselves  for  that  loss,  as  they  call  it. 
Again,  Congress  makes  a  proposition,  or  makes  a 
declaration  (suppose  it  were  a  proposition,  which  it 
is  not),  that  these  States  may  be  received  into  the 
Union  whenever  they  ratify  the  pending  amend 
ment.  Several  of  them  have  already  declined 
it.  They  have  not  been  encouraged  to  ratify  this 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.       519 

amendment  by  the  President.  Congress  will  assem 
ble  in  December  next ;  and,  this  amendment  not  then 
having  been  ratified,  the  whole  •  matter  will  be  open 
for  consideration.  It  will  be  for  the  representatives 
of  the  loyal  people  of  the  country  to  determine 
what  further,  under  the  circumstances,  ought  to  be 
done. 

But  the  rights  of  the  loyal  people  of  the  North 
are  in  a  good  degree  protected,  with  reference  to 
the  equality  of  representation,  by  the  constitutional 
amendment.  We  have  obtained  security  by  the 
constitutional  amendment,  as  far  as  security  can  be 
obtained,  for  the  payment  of  the  public  debt,  and 
for  the  exclusion  of  the  rebel  debt. 

Another  class  that  ought  to  be  protected,  and 
whose  rights  ought  to  be  secured  upon  the  restora 
tion  of  the  Union,  are  the  men  who  have  been 
engaged  in  the  rebellion.  I  have  a  word  to  say  in 
their  behalf;  for  while  I  am  disposed  to  exact  of 
them,  and  of  the  States  to  which  they  belong,  every 
condition  necessary  for  the  public  security,  I  am 
willing  that,  as  individuals,  they  should  be  relieved 
from  all  unnecessary  punishment  or  penalties.  But 
it  is  one  of  their  misfortunes,  that  the  man  at  the 
head  of  the  government  ostensibly  in  their  interest 
has  betrayed  the  loyal  people  of  the  North ;  and  by 
that  betrayal  he  has  rendered  himself  incapable  of 
doing  any  thing  in  behalf  of  the  rebels  of  the  South. 
If  to-night  you  were  to  hear  that  Mr.  Johnson  was 
closeted  with  Stephens,  or  with  Wade  Hampton,  or 
with  General  Johnston,  you,  and  the  whole  country, 
would  be  alarmed.  You  would  fear  that  some  com 
bination  or  conspiracy  was  to  be  made  or  entered 


520        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

into,  prejudicial  to  your  rights.  But  if  the  lament 
ed  Lincoln  were  at  the  head  of  the  government, 
and  you  were  to  hear  that  he  had  gone  to  Fortress 
Munroe,  to  visit  Jefferson  Davis,  in  his  ample  quar 
ters  there,  now  including  Carroll  Hall,  or  that  any 
number  of  the  men  engaged  in  the  rebellion  were 
at  Washington  in  consultation  with  the  President, 
you  would  feel  no  anxiety.  You  would  know  that 
Mr.  Lincoln,  whatever  might  be  his  desire  to  relieve 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  these  men,  however  he 
might  be  disposed  to  benefit  them,  to  aid  them, 
would  still  be  true  to  the  country.  The  country 
having  that  confidence  in  him,  he  could  do  almost 
any  thing  that  he  thought  necessary  for  the  welfare  of 
the  rebels.  But  it  is  the  misfortune  of  the  Southern 
people,  that  this  man,  who  has  betrayed  the  loyal 
sentiment  of  the  country,  by  that  betrayal  has  ren 
dered  himself  incapable  of  doing  any  thing  in  their 
behalf.  Before  the  next  two  years  have  passed 
away,  the  rebels  will  more  completely  despise  and 
contemn  the  Executive  than  does  any  man  in  the 
North  to-day.  He  has  not  only  betrayed  the  loyal 
people  of  the  North,  but  he  has  betrayed  even  the 
rebels  of  the  South ;  so  that  there  will  be  no  man, 
two  years  hence,  who  can  say,  "  President  Johnson 
has  been  my  true  friend." 

Next,  it  is  not  in  his  power  to  do  any  thing  for 
the  loyal  white  people  of  the  South,  or  for  the 
loyal  black  people  of  the  South.  Whenever  this 
government  is  reconstructed,  it  should  be  upon  a 
basis  which  will  secure  the  rights  of  those  two 
large  classes  of  people.  The  pivot  on  which  all 
our  policy  must  turn  hereafter  is  the  right  of  the 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        521 

negro  to  vote.  Whether  it  be  agreeable  to  us  ori 
not,  we  shall  finally  reach  the  conclusion  that  there 
can  be  no  safe  policy  for  us  except  in  securing  to 
the  negro  the  right  of  suffrage.  In  this  city,  yes 
terday,  you  elected  a  colored  man  as  representative, 
and  in  the  neighboring  city  of  Charlestown,  another 
colored  man,  as  I  understand,  has  been  elected  to 
the  same  office.  I  know  nothing  of  the  men.  It  may 
be  that  they  are  not,  personally,  as  well  qualified 
as  some  others ;  but  I  accept  their  election  as  an 
indication  of  the  purpose  of  this  people,  at  least,  to 
make  no  distinction  on  account  of  race  or  color. 
I  accept  the  election  as  an  indication  also  that  the 
people  of  this  city,  and  of  this  State,  are  prepared 
to  accept  the  services  of  the  colored  people  of  the 
South,  in  any  and  every  capacity  for  which  they 
are  fitted.  We  have  had  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
six  thousand  of  them  in  the  armies  of  the  Republic ; 
they  are  four  million  strong ;  several  hundred 
thousand  of  them  are  able-bodied  male  citizens. 
If  you  deny  them  the  elective  franchise,  then  one 
of  two  tilings  hereafter  is  to  happen,  —  either  that 
you  discard  entirely  their  services  in  the  field,  or 
else  that  you  accept  their  services,  or  compel  them 
to  do  service,  while  you  deny  them  all  power  in  the 
government  of  the  country.  Nothing  can  be  more 
unjust  than  the  latter  course.  If  there  be  reasons 
why  women  and  children  should  not  enjoy  the 
elective  franchise,  one  of  those  reasons  is,  that,  in 
the  very  nature  of  the  case,  they  cannot  be  called 
upon  to  defend  with  their  persons  and  their  lives 
the  government  which  is  set  up;  and  therefore, 
if  they  were  allowed  to  vote,  a  government  might 


522       POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

be  established  by  their  suffrages  which  would  not 
'command  the  support,  and  would  not  receive  the 
sanction,  of  the  men  who  are  to  peril  their  lives 
in  its  defence.  The  first  essential  condition  of 
a  government  which  exists  by  force  (and  no  gov 
ernment  can  exist  upon  any  other  foundation) 
is,  that  those  who  are  to  jeopard  their  lives  in 
its  defence  shall  have  a  voice  in  saying  what  that 
government  is  to  be.  For  the  future,  then,  you 
have  either  to  reject  the  military  services  of  the 
men  of  this  mighty  race,  four  million  strong,  num 
bering  as  many  people  as  the  great  State  of  New 
York,  or  else  you  will  compel  them  to  serve  the 
country,  ta  defend  institutions  and  support  a  gov 
ernment  in  whose  organization  and  administration 
they  have  no  part.  We  hear  a  great  deal  of  equality 
before  the  law ;  and  I  observe  by  the  papers  to-day, 
that  Governor  Throckmorton,  of  Texas,  has  asked 
the  Legislature  of  that  State  to  pass  laws  for  the 
protection  of  the  colored  people.  The  great  fact  is, 
that  nobody  is  protected,  as  a  general  thing,  under 
any  government,  if  you  consider  the  people  in  races 
or  classes,  except  those  who  participate  in  the  gov 
ernment.  The  people  of  England  who  are  protected, 
whose  rights  are  secure,  and  who  are  respected  by 
the  government,  are  the  men  who  possess  the  elect 
ive  franchise ;  those  who  do  not  possess  this  right 
are  to  a  great  extent  neglected.  The  fault  of  John 
Bright,  in  his  contest  for  the  extension  of  suffrage, 
is,  that  he  does  not  put  it  upon  a  sufficiently  broad 
basis.  In  England,  the  necessity  of  the  country  is,- 
that  every  man,  as  a  man,  shall  vote ;  such  is  the 
necessity  of  every  country.  Do  you  suppose  it 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIES.        523 

would  have  been  possible,  from  1861  to  1865,  to 
have  obtained  the  services  of  two  million  six  hun 
dred  thousand  men,  by  voluntary  contributions,  in 
any  country  not  free  ?  If  there  had  been  no  sla 
very  in  the  South,  if  the  four  million  of  colored 
people  had  been  free,  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  all 
their  political  rights,  and  if  their  sympathies  had 
been  with  the  men  engaged  in  the  rebellion,  our 
final  success  would  have  been  improbable  in  the 
highest  degree. 

The  strength  of  a  country  is  in  the  universal 
right  of  the  people  to  take  part  in  its  government, 
—  a  right  which  belongs  to  man  as  man,  and  not  to 
any  of  his  incidents,  whether  of  education  or  prop 
erty.  Whenever  a  man  enjoys  the  elective  fran 
chise,  an  inducement  is  held  out  to  him  to  educate 
himself  so  as  to  be  worthy  of  the  privileges  which 
it  confers,  and  capable  of  discharging  the  duties 
which  it  imposes.  The  whole  community  is  inter 
ested,  also,  in  providing  that  each  man,  who  by  his 
vote  may  affect  the  fortunes  of  every  other  man,  is 
educated  so  as  to  discharge  that  high  duty  in  the 
wisest  possible  way.  Universal  suffrage  is  security 
for  every  thing  desirable  of  a  social,  political,  or 
public  character.  The  people  of  England,  when 
they  obtain  the  right  to  vote,  —  as  soon  they  will, 
and  the  more  speedily  if  we  do  justice  to  the  negro 
population  of  this  country,  —  will  accomplish  much 
in  behalf  of  liberty  there,  here,  and  everywhere. 
The  aristocratic  party  will  be  prostrated  under  the 
power  of  the  masses.  The  throne  may  last :  that 
is  comparatively  immaterial  with  reference  to  the 
liberties  and  fortunes  of  the  people ;  but  the  neces- 


524        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

sity  of  the  English  nation  is,  first  universal  suffrage, 
then  the  exercise  of  that  power  so  as  to  abolish  the 
laws  of  entail  and  primogeniture,  and  to  over 
throw  the  aristocracy  of  Great  Britain  as  a  priv 
ileged  class.  We  have  an  interest  in  all  this.  The 
people  of  England,  and  the  throne  of  England,  to 
some  extent,  as  far  as  we  know,  sympathized  with 
us  in  our  great  struggle :  the  hostility  under  which 
we  suffered  from  first  to  last,  and  the  policy  which 
thwarted  us  everywhere,  on  land  and  sea,  originated 
with  the  aristocracy  of  Great  Britain. 
/  The  extension  of  suffrage  to  the  negroes  of  the 
/  South  brings  with  it  all  the  blessings  of  good  gov- 
l  eminent.  It  brings  security  to  the  South.  I  recol- 
Mect,  that,  in  one  of  the  two  conversations  I  have 
had  with  Mr.  Johnson,  he  said,  "  If  you  extend 
suffrage  to  the  negroes,  there  will  at  once  be  quar 
rels  between  the  whites  and  blacks,  and  bloodshed." 
This  result  is  likely  to  happen,  but  the  apprehension 
of  it  is  not  a  sufficient  reason  for  inaugurating  a 
system  of  manifest  and  permanent  injustice.  It  is 
hardly  possible,  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  so 
great  a  revolution  should  be  effected  in  the  South 
as  the  extension  of  suffrage  to  several  hundred 
thousand  colored  people,  without  resistance  on  the 
part  of  the  whites.  But  that  resistance  will  be 
temporary,  it  will  be  local.  After  the  first  year,  or 
first  two  years,  it  will  be  unknown.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  you  refuse  to  extend  the  right  of  suffrage 
to  the  negroes  of  the  South,  do  you  expect  peace  ? 
Consider.  One  hundred  and  eighty-six  thousand 
of  these  men  have  been  in  the  military  service  of 
the  country.  General  Saxton,  in  his  testimony 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        525 

before  the  Committee  on  Reconstruction,  said  that 
it  was  within  his  knowledge  that  the  negroes  of  the 
South  were  organized  and  armed.  Within  the  last 
six  weeks,  I  have  received  letters  from  officers  of 
the  army  in  Alabama,  saying  that  they  had  been 
approached  by  leading  negroes  who  suggested  the 
necessity,  on  their  part,  of  removing  certain  offensive 
whites  who  had  oppressed  them.  Do  you  expect 
that  without  suffrage  there  is  to  be  peace  ?  Such 
an  expectation  is  vain.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
whites  of  the  South  are  organized.  General 
Thomas,  in  his  testimony  before  the  Reconstruc 
tion  Committee,  said  he  had  evidence  from  every 
one  of  the  eleven  States  that  there  were  secret 
hostile  organizations  among  the  whites.  Here,  then, 
you  have  two  armies  in  the  South,  ready  to  be  let 
loose  upon  each  other.  How  is  the  danger  to  be 
avoided  ?  By  extending  suffrage  to  the  negroes. 
Do  this,  and  at  once  you  enlist  in  their  behalf  a 
certain  number  of  white  men.  There  are  loyal 
whites  in  the  South,  who  will  sympathize  and  co 
operate  with  the  blacks.  You  at  once  divide  the 
public  sentiment  of  the  South,  you  divide  the  gov 
erning  powers  of  the  South,  and  you  render  it  certain 
that  neither  party  will  undertake  to  subjugate  the 
other  by  force  of  arms,  especially  if  at  Washington 
there  shall  be  a  man  in  the  executive  chair  who 
will  be  as  swift  to  suppress  insurrection  whenever 
instituted  in  behalf  of  slavery  and  the  interests  of 
slaveholders,  as  to  suppress  insurrection  in  behalf 
of  liberty  and  the  rights  of  man. 

Further,  if  we  extend  the  right  of  suffrage  to  the 
negroes  of  the  South,  we  have  everywhere  a  publi 


*t 

lv 


526        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

/sentiment  in  the  South  more  or  less  strong  in  favor 
\of  this  government.  I  have  said  that  the  constitu 
tional  amendments  which  have  been  presented  to 
the  country,  and  which  now  have  been  ratified  by 
the  people,  are  right  as  far  as  they  go ;  but  they  do 
not  by  any  means  go  far  enough  to  save  the  country 
in  the  exigency  in  which  we  find  ourselves.  The 
amendment  reduces  the  representation  of  the  old 
slave  States  about  eighteen  from  their  present  num 
ber,  and  about  thirty  from  the  number  to  which 
those  States  will  be  entitled  if  the  policy  of  the 
President  shall  be  carried  out.  The  States  are  still 
left  in  the  control  of  rebels.  They  will  send  thirty 
Senators  to  the  Senate,  and  about  eighty  members 
to  the  House  of  Representatives,  all  of  whom  will  be 
pledged,  under  all  circumstances,  to  resist  the  policy 
of  this  government,  if  it  be  upon  the  loyal  side.  Do 
you  expect  Representatives  in  Congress  to  differ 
materially  from  the  constituency  at  home  ?  Perhaps 
no  more  specious  argument  has  been  suggested  than 
that  we  should  accept  loyal  men  from  these  States 
whenever  such  present  themselves.  That  is  to  say, 
for  the  practical  purposes  of  government,  accept 
any  and  every  man  whose  disloyalty  cannot  be 
proved  ;  for  that  is  the  question  to  be  submitted  to 
the  House  and  Senate  upon  the  application  of  a  per 
son  from  either  of  those  States  for  a  seat  in  either 
branch.  Do  you  suppose  that  in  South  Carolina, 
where  the  right  to  vote  is  limited  to  white  people, 
anybody  in  the  interest  of  the  government  is,  dur 
ing  this  generation,  to  be  elected  to  Congress  ? 
Certainly  not.  Under  the  influence  of  the  power 
you  may  exercise  in  the  Senate  and  House,  they 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        527 

may  elect  men  whose  disloyalty  cannot  be  proved ; 
but  they  will  be  sure  to  elect  men  who  are  disloyal 
in  fact,  and  for  all  the  purposes  that  the  South  has 
in  view.  It  is  necessary  to  inject  into  the  South\ 
a  loyal  political  force.  This  can  be  done  by  using  1 
the  negro  population,  composed  as  it  is  of  persons 
who  have  been  loyal  to  the  government  under  all 
circumstances.  The  result  would  be,  that  in  each 
of  those  States  we  should  have  a  large  minority  on 
the  side  of  the  government ;  and  in  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  and  South  Carolina,  a  majority  of  the  peo 
ple  are  colored  persons.  The  result  of  extending  the 
elective  franchise  to  these  persons  would  be,  that 
either  loyal  white  men  or  loyal  black  men  would 
be  sent  to  Congress,  and  either  would  be  preferable 
to  disloyal  white  men.  Is  it  wise  or  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  there  is  to  be,  speedily,  any  change 
of  Southern  public  sentiment  ?  The  doctrine  of 
secession,  the  doctrine  that  a  State  has  the  right 
to  secede  from  this  Union,  is  now  an  ancient  doc 
trine.  It  was  taught  by  Mr.  Calhoun  as  early  as 
1820.  Two  generations  of  young  men  have  grown 
up  under  its  influence.  The  testimony  of  Mr. 
Stephens  before  the  committee  was,  that  there  had 
been  no  change  of  public  sentiment  in  the  Southern 
country,  as  far  as  he  knew,  in  reference  to  the  doc 
trine  of  secession.  It  is  true,  also,  that  many  men 
in  the  South  who  profess  to  be  Union  men  are 
Union  men  only  to  this  extent :  that  in  1861  they 
thought  it  unwise  to  make  war  or  to  secede  at  that 
time  ;  but  they  yet  believe  in  the  theory  that  a  State 
has  the  right  to  secede  from  the  Union  whenever 
it  pleases.  To-day  the  press  of  the  South  is  in 


528        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

favor  of  secession ;  all  the  schools  of  the  South  are 
in  the  interest  of  secession ;  the  college  and  the 
church  are  all  on  the  side  of  secession ;  the  women 
of  the  South  teach  their  children  to  hate  the  Union. 
Do  you  expect  that  out  of  the  white  population  of  the 
South,  for  the  next  two  or  three  generations  at  least, 
there  will  be  a  class  of  men  true  to  this  govern 
ment  ?  If  you  have  that  expectation,  most  certainly 
you  and  your  posterity  will  be  disappointed.  There 
is  no  way,  then,  in  which  we  can  secure  a  loyal 
majority  or  a  loyal  political  force  in  any  of  the 
rebel  States,  except  to  invite  and  to  accept  the  ser 
vices  of  the  loyal  black  man. 

We  must  still  further  accept,  as  a  great  truth 
with  reference  to  the  reconstruction  of  the  govern 
ment,  that  the  disloyal  white  people  are  to  vote  also. 
In  Arkansas,  in  1864,  a  law  was  passed,  under  a 
provision  of  its  Constitution,  disfranchising  the  dis 
loyal  men.  A  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Arkansas  has  restored  them  to  their  political  rights. 
The  contest  which  has  been  going  on  in  Maryland 
for  the  last  few  weeks,  and  which  finally  culminated 
yesterday  in  the  triumph  of  the  secessionists  over 
the  loyal  people  of  that  State1,  has  rendered  it  cer 
tain,  that,  in  the  near  future,  all  the  disloyal  people 
of  Maryland  are  to  exercise  the  elective  franchise. 
In  Kentucky  and  Delaware,  they  are  not  disfran 
chised  at  all.  In  Missouri  and  West  Virginia,  the 
contest  goes  on,  but  the  result  is  certain.  The 
loyal  people  in  those  States,  upon  the  issue  of  ex 
cluding  the  disloyal  people,  are  to  be  defeated. 
Therefore  you  must  accept,  as  the  first  fact  in  the 
work  of  reconstruction,  that  the  disloyal  people  are 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        529 

to  exercise  political  power.  How  is  that  power  to 
be  met,  or  resisted,  or  controlled  in  any  degree  ? 
Only  in  one  way,  —  by  extending  the  elective  fran 
chise  to  the  loyal  colored  people  of  the  South. 

Next,  make  these  men  citizens,  and  they  become 
producers  and  consumers  on  a  much  larger  scale 
than  they  will  be  if  they  are  kept  as  a  vassal  race. 
All  the  interests  of  business,  in  New  York,  Boston\ 
Cincinnati,  Chicago,  are  concerned  in  the  freedom/ 
and  elevation  of  this  great  class  of  American  citi 
zens.     Therefore  it  happens  that  the  material  and 
political  interests  of  the  country  now  combine  and 
concur  in  the  policy  of  conferring  upon  these  men 
all  their  just  rights. 

The  Thirty-ninth  Congress  assembles  in  December 
next ;  and  the  Fortieth  Congress  is  already  elected, 
with  a  House  in  which  two-thirds,  at  least,  will  be 
opposed  to  the  Executive  policy.  The  Senate,  by  a 
larger  majority  than  heretofore,  will  also  be  opposed 
to  that  policy.  What  I  desire  to  consider  is,  How 
shall  the  power  which  has  thus  been  newly  conferred 
upon  the  representatives  of  the  people  be  exercised  ? 
I  think  that  it  may  be  exercised  with  reference  to 
two  great  matters  of  permanent,  public  interest. 
One  I  have  already  considered,  —  the  extension  of 
the  elective  franchise  to  the  colored  people ;  and  I 
pause  a  moment  to  suggest  to  you  that  there  are 
two  ways  in  which  this  result  can  be  accomplished. 
One  is,  by  holding  these  ten  States  just  as  they  are, 
subject  to  the  control  of  Congress,  representing  the 
people  of  this  country,  until  those  States,  of  their 
own  motion,  shall  do  justice  to  the  colored  people. 
We  have  governed  this  country  for  the  last  four 

34 


530        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

years  without  their  aid ;  and,  if  it  be  necessary 
to  govern  it  four  or  ten  years  more  without  their 
aid,  it  can  be  done,  with  entire  safety  to  all.  Yet 
it  is,  without  doubt,  conformable  to  the  theory  of  our 
institutions,  that  every  portion  of  the  people  of  the 
country  should  be  represented.  It  is  a  necessity  of 
our  condition,  that  they  should  be  represented  only 
by  loyal  men ;  and  you  can  secure  loyal  men 
only  by  securing  a  loyal  constituency.  The  gov 
ernments  existing  at  the  present  time  in  those  so- 
called  States  are  governments  instituted  by  or 
through  the  agency  of  the  President  and  the  mili 
tary  authorities  of  the  country.  Not  more  than  one 
or  two  of  the  Constitutions  under  which  those 
several  States  are  acting  has  ever  been  submitted 
to  the  people.  Those  governments  are,  in  the  eye  of 
the  Constitution  and  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  without  any  valid  authority  whatever.  Con 
gress  may,  whenever  it  sees  fit,  abolish  them,  institute 
territorial  governments,  and  in  those  territorial 
governments  declare  who  shall  vote  and  who  shall 
not  vote.  Congress  may  institute  negro  suffrage, 
if  it  pleases,  and  build  up  States  from  the  beginning, 
where  there  shall  be  equality  of  rights  and  loyalty 
to  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  Most 
likely  the  result  to  which  all  the  public  policy  of 
the  country  now  tends  is  the  destruction  of  these 
false  governments  that  have  been  set  up,  and  the 
establishment  of  constitutional  governments  in  their 
stead.  I  take  it  that  the  people  of  the  country  are 
not  influenced  by  the  suggestion  of  the  President, 
that,  when  power  is  in  his  hands,  there  is  no  danger 
of  centralization  ;  but  when  Congress  undertakes  to 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        531 

exercise  authority,  although  the  members  of  the 
lower  house  are  every  two  years  amenable  to  the 
people,  there  is  great  danger  of  centralization  of 
power ! 

The  other  matter  which  will  require  the  attention 
of  Congress  is  this :  whether  a  person  holding  the 
office  of  President  of  the  United  States,  if  he  be  guilty 
of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors,  is  liable  to  be  im 
peached  and  tried,  and  deprived  of  his  office,  or  not. 
When  the  election  was  pending,  if  I  supposed  that 
any  political  advantage  was  to  be  gained  by  a  sugges 
tion  of  this  sort,  I  certainly  would  scorn  myself  if  I 
were  to  make  it  merely  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
a  party  triumph  or  party  advantage.  Now  that  the 
election  is  over,  no  reason  whatever  remains  for 
arraigning  the  President,  unless  it  be  a  reason  con 
nected  with  the  safety  and  the  welfare  of  the  coun 
try. 

What  are  the  facts?  The  President  of  the 
United  States  cannot  be  arraigned  because  he  is 
disagreeable  to  us ;  he  cannot  be  arraigned  because 
he  has  betrayed  a  party ;  he  cannot  be  arraigned 
because  he  has  deserted  principles  to  which  we 
supposed  he  was  committed ;  he  cannot,  perhaps, 
be  arraigned  because  he  has  disgraced  and  humili 
ated  us  in  thes  presence  of  the  world.  If  he  is  to 
be  arraigned  at  all,  it  must  be  for  some  substan 
tial,  well-grounded  cause  ;  some  offence  that  he 
has  committed  under  the  Constitution,  which  shall 
be  so  proved  that  no  man  can  doubt  as  to  whether 
he  committed  it  or  not,  and  which  is  so  heinous 
in  its  character  as  to  leave  no  room  even  for  his 
friends  and  supporters  in  this  country,  much  less 


532        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

for  the  world  and  for  posterity,  to  decide  that  he 
was  illegally  and  unjustly  condemned.  I  allude 
now  to  this  feature  in  our  prospective  policy  for 
this  purpose,  and  for  this  alone.  I  observe,  from 
conversation  and  from  the  newspapers,  that  there  are 
those  who  are  opposed  to  the  policy  of  the  President, 
who  yet  contend  that  he  ought  not  to  be  arraigned, 
though  he  be  guilty  even  of  the  gravest  offences. 
They  assert  that  even  then  it  would  be  bad  policy. 
I  am  here  to-night  to  do  something,  if  I  may,  to 
induce  the  country  to  abandon  mere  policy,  and 
to  be  governed  in  all  its  public  action  by  the  prin 
ciples  of  justice. 

While  the  President  is  not  to  be  arraigned  be 
cause  he  is  disagreeable,  or  because  he  has  been 
false  to  former  professions,  yet,  if  he  has  been 
guilty  of  any  substantial  and  wilful  violation  of  the 
Constitution  or  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  then  in  the 
name  of  justice,  and  without  regard  to  short-sighted 
policy,  he  should  be  arraigned  and  tried.  There  are 
certain  things  we  know.  We  know  that  he  ap 
pointed  men  to  office,  in  those  eleven  States,  who 
neither  did  take  nor  could  have  taken  the  oath  of 
office  imposed  by  the  law  of  the  land,  passed  July  2, 
1862.  In  that  act  it  was  declared  that  no  man 
should  hold  any  office,  military,  naval,  or  civil, 
unless  he  had  first  taken  an  oath  that  he  had  never 
given  support,  countenance,  or  encouragement  to 
the  enemies  of  the  country,  in  armed  hostility 
thereto.  We  know  that  the  President  again  and 
again  appointed  men  to  office,  in  violation  of  that 
law.  That  law  also  said  that  no  man  should  re 
ceive  either  compensation  or  salary  for  the  perform- 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        533 

ance  of  any  official  duty  until  he  had  first  taken  the 
oath  prescribed.  These  men  were  appointed  in 
the  Treasury  Department ;  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  had  made  an  appropriation  for  the 
payment  of  all  officers  in  that  department ;  yet 
these  men,  so  appointed  to  office,  and  so  entering 
upon  the  performance  of  the  duties  of  their  respect 
ive  offices,  without  first  taking  the  oath  prescribed 
by  the  law  of  the  land,  were  not  paid.  The  Presi 
dent  is  appointing  men  to  office  who  were  at  the 
last  session  of  Congress  rejected  by  the  Senate  for 
the  very  same  offices  in  which  again  they  have  been 
placed.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  says 
that  these  offices  shall  be  filled  by  the  President, 
"by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate." 
The  Senate  refused  its  consent,  and  yet  these  men 
in  various  cases  have  been  appointed  to  the  offices, 
for  which  they  had  been  nominated  previously  and 
rejected. 

I  refer  to  these  matters,  not  for  the  purpose  of 
asking  here  whether  they  constitute  such  offences 
under  the  laws  and  Constitution  as  would  justify 
the  arraignment  of  the  President,  but  for  the  pur 
pose  of  showing  that  the  suggestion  that  an  inquiry 
should  be  made  into  his  official  conduct  is  not  with 
out  some  grave  foundation  in  the  facts  that  are 
before  the  country.  And,  my  friends,  if,  in  the 
office  of  President,  we  find  a  man  who  is  guilty  of 
offences  rendering  him  liable  to  impeachment  under 
the  Constitution,  it  would  be  no  misfortune  to  the 
country,  if  he  should  be  arraigned,  condemned, 
deprived  of  his  office,  and  declared  incapable,  for 
ever  after,  of  holding  office ;  but  it  would  be  a 


534       POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

misfortune  of  the  gravest  character,  if  a  President, 
so  guilty,  should  escape.  Will  you  arraign  the 
judge  of  a  small  tribunal,  who  passes  judgment 
upon  the  rights  of  men  to  the  amount  of  a  hundred 
dollars,  if  he  appears  drunk  in  his  seat,  or  if  he 
accepts  a  bribe  of  a  sixpence  from  a  suitor,  and  allow 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  chief  magis 
trate  of  the  land,  the  highest  officer,  we  may  say, 
judged  by  his  power,  upon  the  face  of  the  earth, 
to  escape,  when  guilty,  merely  because  some  people 
think  it  bad  policy  to  disturb  the  public  peace  by 
questions  of  such  a  nature  ?  The  administration 
of  justice  is  never  a  public  misfortune  ;  in  the  case 
I  am  considering,  it  will  be  a  warning  to  all  men 
who  shall  hereafter  aspire  to  the  Presidency,  and 
all  who  shall  occupy  the  place,  that  there  are  cer 
tain  things  that  cannot  be  done  with  impunity. 
There  is  nothing  that  so  injures  and  debauches  the 
public  mind  as  unbridled  ambition  for  the  great 
office.  There  is  no  evil  connected  with  our  public 
affairs  which  is  fraught  with  greater  danger  to  the 
country  than  the  evil  of  presidential  aspirations. 
Every  Executive,  or  nearly  every  Executive,  has 
used  his  power  'with  reference  to  a  re-election.  Mr. 
Lincoln,  as  far  as  I  know,  was  the  exception.  The 
most  that  ever  he  said,  in  reference  to  his  re-elec 
tion,  was  this :  "I  have  never  desired  to  hold 
this  place  for  four  years  more ;  but  I  have  de 
sired  to  receive  the  approval  of  the  people  for 
what  I  have  done."  With  this  exception,  every 
Executive  in  modern  times  has  sought  to  secure 
his  own  re-election.  If,  under  the  guidance  of 
the  Constitution  and  in  conformity  to  the  strict- 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.       535 

est  principles  of  justice,  the  President  shall  be 
arraigned  and  condemned,  it  will  be  a  warning  to 
every  man  who  may  hold  the  seat  he  now  occupies, 
or  who  may  aspire  to  it.  Each  successor  will 
understand  that  he  cannot  with  safety  disgrace  and 
humiliate  the  country  in  its  own  presence,  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  representatives  of  foreign 
nations ;  that  he  cannot  with  impunity  announce 
that  a  Congress  which  has  had  the  power  to  guide 
and  control  the  nation  during  a  contest  unparal 
leled  in  our  history,  and  unexampled  in  the  history 
of  any  other  country,  is  a  body  "  called,  or  which 
assumed  to  be,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
but  in  fact  a  Congress  of  only  a  part  of  the  States, 
hanging  upon  the  verge  of  the  government :  "  nor 
can  he  proclaim  with  impunity,  after  such  a  pro 
ceeding,  that  he  could  have  made  himself  dictator ; 
nor  speak  of  the  officers  of  the  government,  who  are 
the  servants  of  the  people,  to  do  their  will,  and  not 
mere  Executive  minions,  as  satraps  and  dependants ; 
nor  tolerate  a  Secretary  of  State  who  puts  the  ques 
tion  to  the  people  whether  they  will  have  the  man 
who  is  in  office  for  President,  or  for  king.  It 
should  be  understood  by  all  the  people  of  the  coun 
try,  that  the  office  of  President  is  too  great  and  too 
sacred  to  be  trifled  with,  that  it  is  an  office  created 
by  the  people  for  their  benefit,  that  he  who  sits 
in  the  chief  seat  of  power  in  this  country  is  but 
their  first  servant,  and  that  they  will  never  consent 
that  the  question  shall  be  suggested  whether  such  a 
person  is  to  be  dictator  or  king. 

Then  the  two  great  questions  for  the  considera 
tion  of  the  country  during  the  coming  two  years 


536        POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS. 

are,  first,  whether  the  President  is  liable,  justly, 
under  the  Constitution,  to  be  removed  from  his 
office ;  and,  if  so  liable,  there  then  can  be  no  ques 
tion  about  proceeding  constitutionally,  firmly,  faith 
fully,  to  the  end :  and,  secondly,  whether  the  people 
of  this  country,  without  reference  to  race  or  color, 
are  to  be  regarded  as  men  in  the  reconstruction  of 
the  government.  The  Republican  party  will  live  or 
die,  it  will  swim  or  sink,  upon  this  issue.  In  1868, 
however  men  may  seek  to  avoid  the  issue,  it  will 
be  simply  this,  —  whether  the  people  of  the  ten 
States,  without  regard  to  color,  shall  be  endowed 
with  the  elective  franchise ;  and  if,  before  1868, 
these  ten  States  are  restored  to  political  power  in 
the  government  of  this  country,  and  the  rights  of  the 
colored  people  disregarded,  then  this  party,  which 
rose  in  1856  as  the  party  against  the  extension  of 
slavery,  which  in  1860  and  1861  accepted  the  chal 
lenge  to  battle,  which  in  1863,  through  its  chosen 
leader,  proclaimed  emancipation,  will  have  ceased 
to  exist ;  for  there  will  be  nothing  in  the  future  to 
command  the  services  or  enlist  the  efforts  of  its 
best  men.  If  in  1868  the  question  is  already  set 
tled  against  the  negro,  the  enthusiastic  and  deter 
mined  men  of  the  Republican  party  will  have  no 
longer  an  interest  in  fighting  its  battles ;  the 
fifteen  thousand  majority  of  the  State  of  New  York 
will  disappear  ;  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  other 
States  will  enroll  themselves  with  the  ten  trium 
phant  States  of  the  South ;  and  the  North  will  see 
itself  again  reduced  to  an  abject  and  servile  condi-  . 
tion  in  the  government  of  the  country.  But  if  we, 
as  a  people,  accept  fearlessly  and  in  faith  the  issue 


POLICY  AND  JUSTICE  IN  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS.        537 

before  us,  which  is  the  issue  of  the  equality  of  all 
men  under  the  laws,  and  reconstruct  the  govern 
ment  as  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people,  then  a  triumphant  and  glorious 
future  awaits  us.  We  have  two  years  in  which  to 
make  up  this  issue.  I  think  I  see  very  clearly  that 
it  will  be  made  up  on  our  side  in  behalf  of  liberty, 
equality,  freedom,  and  justice  for  all  men ;  that  we 
shall  hold  high  the  banner  above  the  smoke  and 
dust  and  turmoil  of  mere  party  strife,  so  that  it  may 
be  seen  not  only  by  the  people  of  this  country,  but 
by  the  people  of  the  whole  world.  Thus  we  shall 
give  to  the  masses  of  England,  who  are  now  strug 
gling  to  emancipate  themselves,  an  additional  reason 
for  effort  and  an  additional  motive  for  success. 
Finally,  this  government  is  not  only  to  be  re-estab 
lished  upon  the  principles  of  equality  ;  but,  through 
sympathy  and  the  force  of  our  views  and  the  public 
sentiment  which  will  be  here  created,  England  her 
self  is  to  be  redeemed  from  the  aristocratic  element 
by  which  she  is  controlled ;  and,  in  that  country 
and  in  this,  the  day  will  appear  speedily  when  the 
masses  shall  rule,  in  faith,  in  justice,  and  in  power. 


538 


RECONSTRUCTION,  AND  ITS  RELATIONS  TO 
THE   BUSINESS   OF   THE    COUNTRY. 

AN  ADDRESS  BEFORE  THE  OLD  BAY    STATE    ASSOCIATION,  BOSTON, 
DEC.  27,  1866. 

• 

I  TRUST  no  one  will  suppose  that  my  subject  im 
plies  any  want  of  confidence  in  the  patriotism 
of  the  business  men  of  Boston,  of  our  State,  or  of 
the  country.  I  chose  to  speak  upon  the  topic  which 
has  been  announced,  because  I  had  observed  occa 
sionally  in  the  public  journals  the  suggestion  that 
the  business  men  of  the  country  were  largely  inter 
ested  in  the  immediate  restoration  of  the  Union, 
without  much  regard  to  the  manner  of  doing  the 
work.  For  myself,  I  have  never  accepted  the  sug 
gestion,  certainly  not  since  the  manifestations  of 
patriotism  during  the  war  on  the  part  of  the  busi 
ness  men  of  our  State  and  of  the  country,  that 
they  would,  as  a  body,  be  disposed  to  second  any 
movement  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union  not 
based  upon  sound  principles  of  public  policy.  The 
restoration  of  the  Union  means  the  introduction 
again,  into  the  government  of  the  country,  of  that 
considerable  body  of  people,  and  that  vast  extent 
of  territory,  engaged  in  and  covered  by  the  rebellion. 
It  implies  a  renewal  of  the  exercise  of  power  in 
this  government  by  those  men  who  for  thirty  years 


RECONSTRUCTION.  539 

plotted  for  its  overthrow,  and  for  nearly  five  years 
carried  on  a  persistent  and  formidable,  and  at  times 
apparently  successful,  rebellion  for  its  destruction. 
It  is  therefore  no  slight  matter,  that  these  people 
at  any  time,  or  to  any  extent,  until  their  spirit 
and  purposes  are  changed,  are  to  be  received  into 
the  government  of  the  country.  We  accept,  as 
far  as  the  persons  who  have  been  concerned  in 
the  rebellion  are  to  be  considered,  a  body  of  men 
who  are  hostile  to  this  government,  who  seek  its 
destruction,  and  who  will  avail  themselves  of  any 
opportunity  that  may  present  itself  in  the  chan 
ging  condition  of  public  aifairs  to  accomplish  that 
for  which  they  have  fought.  Therefore  there  should 
be  on  the  part  of  all,  accompanied  by  a  desire 
for  the  restoration  of  the  Union,  attention  to  those 
safeguards  and  securities  which,  under  the  circum 
stances,  it  is  possible  for  us  either  to  erect  or  to 
take. 

Again,  consider  that  the  restoration  of  the  Union 
implies  the  renewal  of  power  on  the  part  of  nearly 
four  million  people  who,  for  the  present  moment, 
are  excluded  from  all  participation  in  the  govern 
ment  of  the  country.  It  implies,  also,  the  exercise 
of  power  on  the  part  of  their  posterity  and  succes 
sors  through  many  generations ;  and  if  we  accept 
them  as  they  are,  with  supreme  power  in  their 
respective  localities  and  States  vested  in  the  hands 
of  rebels,  with  all  the  institutions  which  control 
and  mould  public  sentiment  subject  to  their  will, 
we  cannot  expect  that,  in  five  or  ten  or  twenty  or 
fifty  years  even,  the  spirit  of  rebellion  will  be  extin 
guished  in  that  section  of  country.  In  the  ten  States 


540  RECONSTRUCTION. 

that  are  not  represented  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  there  were,  in  1860,  4,620,000  white 
people ;  there  were,  at  that  time,  125,000  free  col 
ored  persons;  there  were,  also,  8,265,000  slaves, — 
making  an  aggregate  of  colored  persons  of  3,390,: 
000,  and  of  4,620,000  white  persons.  These  ten 
States  have  an  area  of  635,454  square  miles, — • 
about  one-fifth  of  the  entire  surface  of  the  Union, 
including  all  the  territories  that  are  but  partially 
settled  this  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the 
vast  mountain  region  between  the  Mississippi  River 
and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  These  ten  States  have  a 
population  at  present  of  rather  more  than  eight 
million ;  they  have  an  area  of  635,000  square 
miles;  they  have,  for  the  most  part,  a  fertile  soil; 
they  are  blessed  with  a  salubrious  and  agreeable 
climate ;  they  possess  all  the  natural  advantages 
which  insure  in  the  future  a  vast  population.  It 
is  therefore  a  matter  of  the  highest  magnitude 
to  so  arrange  the  details  of  reconstruction,  and  to 
proceed  upon  such  principles,  as  shall  secure  to  the 
country  a  loyal  public  sentiment  in  all  that  region. 
If  we  leave  to  these  four  million  rebels  local  power, 
imdiminished  sway  in  one-fifth  of  the  territory  of 
the  Union ;  if  we  confide  to  them  and  to  their  care 
the  institutions  of  government,  of  education,  of 
religion,  of  social  life ;  if  we  assign  to  them  the 
undisputed  control  of  the  press,  —  what  have  we  to 
expect  in  the  future  except  generation  after  genera 
tion  influenced  by  the  same  principles,  and  ani 
mated  by  the  same  purposes,  that  have  controlled 
the  inhabitants  of  that  region  for  the  last  thirty-five 
years  ?  These  facts  and  views  give  us  some  idea 


RECONSTRUCTION.  541 

of  the  magnitude  of  the  subject  with  which  we  are 
to  deal. 

For  the  purpose  of  showing  how  the  business 
interests  of  this  country  are  concerned  in  the  work 
of  restoration,  I  desire  to  recall  your  attention  to 
certain  well-known  facts,  developed  by  the  census 
of  1860,  but  indicated  quite  distinctly  in  all  the 
censuses  that  have  been  taken  from  1790  until 
1860,  showing  how  the  system  of  slavery  has 
tended  to  prevent  the  increase  of  the  population  of 
this  vast  and  inviting  region  of  country,  and  how 
also  it  has  contributed  to  depress  labor,  to  degrade 
the  laborer,  and  consequently  to  render  that  sec 
tion  incapable  of  producing  wealth,  as  compared 
with  the  free  States  of  the  country.  These  facts  are 
well  known ;  but,  in  the  relation  in  which  I  speak 
to-night,  I  think  it  not  unwise  to  recall  your  atten 
tion  to  them.  The  area  of  New  England,  New 
York,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Maryland, 
and  Delaware  —  an  extensive  region  of  country  —  is 
but  213,786  square  miles, — just  about  one-third  the 
area  of  country  covered  by  the  ten  unrepresented 
States.  But  these  twelve  States,  with  an  area  of 
but  213,000  square  miles,  against  635,000  square 
miles  in  the  ten  rebellious  States,  have  a  population 
of  13,682,000  against  8,010,000  in  those  ten  States, 
nearly  half  of  whom  are  colored  people,  showing 
how  much  more  rapidly  population  has  increased  in 
the  free  States  than  in  the  slave  States.  In  these 
twelve  free  States,  the  population  averages  sixty- 
three  persons  to  the  square  mile,  while  in  the  ten 
rebellious  and  unrepresented  States,  the  population 
is  but  twelve  and  six-tenths  persons  to  the  square 


542  RECONSTRUCTION. 

mile ;  that  is,  the  average  population  in  the  twelve 
free  States  is  about  five  times  as  large  as  in  the  ten 
unrepresented  States.  If  these  ten  rebel  States, 
in  proportion  to  their  area,  had  an  equal  population 
with  the  twelve  free  States,  they  would  number 
forty  million  people.  That  they  have  not  the  pop 
ulation  is  undoubtedly  due,  in  a  large  degree  (not 
entirely),  to  the  institution  of  slavery. 

Next,  it  may  be  well  to  consider  how  it  is,  that 
slavery  has  prevented  the  increase  of  population  in 
this  inviting  region  of  country.  First,  unquestion 
ably,  slavery,  as  a  system  of  oppression,  prevents 
the  increase  of  population ;  it  deters  those  seeking 
a  home  from  migrating  into  a  region  of  country 
that  is  controlled  by  the  institution.  In  the  second 
place,  wherever  slavery  exists,  there  must  prevail, 
among  the  people  generally,  a  system  of  ignorance 
from  which  they  cannot  escape.  It  is  undoubtedly 
true,  that  the  people  may  be  in  some  degree  igno 
rant  even  where  they  are  free,  because  it  is  only 
by  a  certain  amount  of  education,  acquaintance 
with  the  world,  experience,  knowledge  of  history, 
that  a  man  comes  to- realize  the  importance  of  edu 
cation  as  a  means  of  prosperity.  But  wherever  the 
institution  of  slavery  exists,  wherever  the  mass  of 
the  people  are  denied  their  natural  rights,  there, 
of  course,  the  laboring  population  are  in  a  state  of 
ignorance,  because  the  controlling  interests  of  soci 
ety  are  opposed  to  every  system  of  education.  In 
Great  Britain,  for  example,  the  interest  in  educa- 
cation  is  limited  to  those  classes  that  are  to  partici 
pate  in  the  government.  I  have  often  said,  that 
even  in  our  own  State  of  Massachusetts,  where 


RECONSTRUCTION.  543 

public  instruction  has  existed  for  about  two  hun 
dred  years,  and  where  there  is  a  strong  public  sen 
timent  in  favor  of  its  continuance,  if  we  were  to 
introduce  a  system  by  which  the  laboring  people 
should  be  deprived  of  their  natural  rights,  and 
especially  if  they  were  debarred  the  exercise  of  the 
elective  franchise,  our  system  of  education  would 
not  last  thirty  years.  It  is  because  the  mass  of  the 
people  feel  that  a  system  of  public  instruction  is 
the  chief  means  by  which  they  and  theirs  are  to 
be  elevated  from  a  condition  of  poverty  to  afflu 
ence,  from  ignorance  to  cultivation  and  refinement, 
that  always  and  everywhere  they  support  schools 
and  institutions  of  learning.  Therefore,  wherever 
slavery  exists,  there  must  be  ignorance,  and  so, 
wherever  slavery  exists,  there  must  be  a  great 
degree  of  insecurity,  not  simply  to  the  slaves  them 
selves,  but  to  every  race  and  every  condition  of 
society.  The  system  of  slavery  being  in  itself  a 
despotism,  and  the  system  of  African  slavery  in 
this  country  having  proved  the  truth  that  every 
slaveholder  was  a  petty  tyrant,  life,  liberty,  and 
property  have  always  been  insecure  wherever  the 
system  has  existed  among  us. 

We  have  destroyed  slavery  as  a  chattel  system 
in  the  Southern  States,  although  to  the  dishonor 
of  the  government  it  must  be  confessed  that  in 
several  of  those  States  efforts  are  making  to  re 
establish  something  like  the  institution  of  slavery. 
What  we  need  now  is  an  Executive  who  shall  use 
the  national  authority  for  the  protection  of  the  col- 
gred  and  white  loyal  people  in  the  States  recently 
in  rebellion.  We  have  destroyed  the  system  of 


544  EECONSTRUCTION. 

slavery  in  these  fifteen  States ;  but  we  have  not 
destroyed  the  spirit  of  slavery :  and  if,  by  any  plan 
of  restoration,  you  put  local  power  into  the  hands 
of  'the  slaveholding  classes ;  if  you  give  to  them 
the  control  of  those  States ;  if  you  give  to  them  the 
exclusive  right  to  be  represented  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States,  —  in  some  form  and  in  some 
way,  they  will  devise  means  for  the  continued  op 
pression  of  the  class  recently  in  servitude.  There 
fore  it  is  the  duty  of  the  government  and  of  the 
people,  in  considering  the  subject  of  restoration,  not 
to  allow  the  mind  to  be  diverted  at  all  from  the 
necessity  of  our  condition,  which  is  to  so  recon 
struct  this  government  that  oppression  shall  cease, 
that  ignorance  shall  be  removed,  and  that  there 
shall  be  security  for  life,  liberty,  and  property  in 
all  that  region  of  country. 

There  have  been  suggested,  during  the  last  two 
years,  four  different  ways  of  restoring  the  Union. 
I  call  them  ways :  some  of  them  are  poor  ways. 
The  first  is  the  President's  way,  which,  upon  the 
views  I  have  been  presenting,  is  really  no  way  at 
all  for  the  people  of  this  country.  It  is  a  way 
which  opens  to  the  South,  to  the  rebel  States,  and 
to  the  rebel  leaders,  a  renewal  of  power  in  the  gov 
ernment,  and  consigns  all  this  vast  territory  and 
these  eight  million  people  to  their  undisputed  con 
trol.  I  trust  that  the  loyal  citizens  of  the  country 
with  great  unanimity  are  opposed  to  this  way ;  and 
they  should  be  opposed'  to  it  as  well  for  its  origin 
as  for  its  results.  It  is  a  simple  way.  The  Presi 
dent  wishes  to  invite  these  ten  States  back  into  the 
Union ;  to  give  them,  for  the  present,  the  representa- 


RECONSTRUCTION.  545 

tive  power  which  they  had  under  the  old  Con 
stitution, —  representation  based  upon  three-fifths 
of  the  slaves,  and,  after  the  census  of  1870,  rep 
resentation  to  be  based  upon  the  entire  negro 
population  of  the  South,  while  the  negroes  are  to 
be  excluded  from  all  participation  in  the  govern 
ment  of  the  country.  But  the  President's  way  is 
equally  objectionable  on  account  of  its  origin. 
You  remember  very  well  the  proclamation  con 
cerning  North  Carolina,  issued  in  May  or  June, 
1865.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  system  of  usur 
pation,  which  to-day,  in  its  results,  is  the  chief 
obstacle  to  the  speedy  and  safe  restoration  of  the 
government.  He  assumed,  in  that  proclamation, 
power  which  neither  he  nor  any  President  since  the 
organization  of  the  government  had  a  right  to  ex 
ercise  under  the  Constitution.  His  premise  for  the 
proclamation  was  the  fourth  section  of  the  fourth 
article  of  the  Constitution,  which  declares  that  the 
United  States  shall  guaranty  to  every  State  in  this 
Union  a  republican  form  of  government.  After 
various  other  non-essential  statements,  he  deduces 
his  conclusions,  and  proclaims  a  government  in 
North  Carolina,  assuming  that  he  was,  as  the 
United  States,  carrying  out  this  provision  of  the 
Constitution. 

There  were  two  difficulties  in  the  way  of  his 
theory.  First,  he  was  not  the  United  States ;  and 
secondly,  the  Supreme  Court  had  declared  that  it 
was  Congress,  and  Congress  only,  which  could 
decide  whether  the  government  of  a  State  was 
republican  or  not.  In  the  case  of  Luther  vs.  Bor- 
den,  the  Supreme  Court  held  that  it  was  for  Con- 

35 


546  RECONSTRUCTION. 

gress  to  decide  whether  the  Constitution  of  a  State 
was  republican,  and  that  every  department  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  was  bound 
thereby.  But  the  President  assumed  to  be  the 
United  States,  to  erect  a  government  in  North 
Carolina,  and  to  take  upon  himself  authority  to 
decide  a  question  which  could  be  decided  only  by 
Congress.  This  was  the  beginning  of  our  diffi 
culties  with  reference  to  reconstruction.  Then 
the  President  departed  still  further.  If  I  am 
not  in  error,  Mr.  Lincoln,  during  his  administra 
tion,  was  very  careful,  in  the  provisional  govern 
ments  which  he  established  or  authorized,  to  act 
exclusively  in  his  capacity  as  commander-in-chief 
of  the  army,  and  not  at  all  as  President  clothed 
with  civil  authority.  And,  further,  he  either  ap 
pointed  an  officer  of  the  army  to  be  the  provisional 
or  military  Governor  of  a  State,  or,  if  civilians  were 
appointed,  they  received  commissions  in  the  mili 
tary  service.  But  Mr.  Johnson  acted  differently, 
and  not  only  did  not  proceed  in  the  reconstruction 
of  the  government  as  commander-in-chief  of  the 
army,  but  he  exercised  authority  merely  in  his 
civil  capacity.  He  not  only  did  not  go  to  the 
army  of  the  United  States ;  he  not  only  did  not 
go  exclusively  among  the  loyal  people  of  the  coun 
try  ;  but  he  pardoned  rebels,  exercising  therein  a 
high  function  which  he  could  exercise  only  as  Pres 
ident  of  the  United  States ;  restoring  to  their  civil 
rights  men  who  had  participated  in  the  rebellion, 
and  then  appointing  them  Governors  of  these 
various  States  or  districts  of  country.  I  think  the 
nation  has  already  reached  the  conclusion,  that, 


RECONSTRUCTION.  547 

whether  we  look  to  the  grounds  on  which  these 
governments  are  established,  or  to  the  results  that 
are  likely  to  flow  from  them,  they  are  to  be 
regarded  as  unconstitutional  and  invalid  organiza 
tions. 

Another  plan  of  restoring  the  Union  is  to  admit 
these  ten  States  respectively  whenever  they  shall 
ratify  severally  the  pending  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  The  character 
of  this  amendment  I  need  not  detail  to  you.  The 
very  day  that  the  House  of  Representatives  voted 
to  admit  Tennessee  to  her  place  as  a  State  in  the 
Union,  a  bill  was  laid  on  the  table,  which  declared, 
that,  whenever  any  one  of  the  States  recently  in 
rebellion  should  ratify  the  constitutional  amend 
ment,  it  should  be  admitted  to  representation  in  the 
government  of  the  country.  The  constitutional 
amendment,  as  far  as  understood  by  the  radical 
men  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  meant 
this,  and  nothing  more :  that  it  was  a  condition 
precedent  to  the  recognition  of  the  right  of  those 
States  to  be  represented,  —  a  condition  which  we 
would  not  dispense  with,  but  a  condition  which 
we  were  not  bound  to  regard  as  the  sole  condition. 
It  was  so  treated  at  the  time,  by  many  members  of 
the  House  of  Representatives.  Finally,  I  am  bound 
to  declare  that  it  would  be  in  the  highest  degree 
unwise  and  unsafe  for  the  people  of  the  country  to 
accept  these  States,  when  the  constitutional  amend 
ment  shall  be  ratified  by  the  country,  or  by  them 
respectively ;  and  the  reasons  are  apparent.  Like 
the  President's  policy,  the  amendment  turns  over 
the  ten  States  to  the  control  of  rebels.  The  amend- 


548  RECONSTRUCTION. 

ment  itself  only  by  indirection  obtains  security  for 
the  recognition  of  the  rights  of  the  negroes.  It 
will  be  practicable  for  the  white  people  of  the  ten 
States  to  exclude  the  negroes  from  all  voice  in  the 
government  of  them.  The  old  slave  States  will  lose 
eighteen  of  their  present  Representatives ;  but  still 
I  have  no  doubt,  that,  on  the  whole,  the  mass  of 
the  rebel  leaders  in  the  South  will  prefer  the  loss, 
rather  than  the  extension  of  the  right  of  suffrage 
to  negroes.  They  will  still  have  their  two  Senators 
from  each  State,  and  an  aggregate  of  about  seventy 
members  in  the  House  of  Representatives ;  they 
will  still  be  a  compact  and  powerful  organization, 
for  the  purposes  of  thwarting  and  overthrowing  the 
government. 

As  a  matter  of  policy,  setting  aside  the  question 
of  right,  it  will  be  unfortunate  for  the  people  of  the 
country  to  admit  any  system  of  restoration  which 
allows  the  ten  States  to  continue  a  unit  in  opinion 
with  reference  to  the  question  of  the  existence  of 
the  government.  As  a  matter  of  policy,  we  must 
divide  the  public  sentiment  of  these  States ;  divide 
their  local  governments,  placing  some  of  them  on 
the  side  of  the  Union ;  securing  representation  by 
loyal  men,  even  though  those  loyal  representatives 
be  black  men.  It  is  the  most  dangerous  of  all 
propositions  that  the  old  slave  States  should  here 
after  be  represented  in  the  government  of  this 
country  as  a  unit  upon  the  question  which  is  vital 
to  us,  —  whether  the  government  shall  exist ;  there 
fore,  for  one,  I  look  for  such  a  policy  in  the  work  of 
restoration  as  will  secure  to  the  government  of  the 
United  States  a  loyal  support.  If  we  cannot  have 


RECONSTRUCTION.  549 

the  united  force  of  the  fifteen  former  slave  States, 
let  us  at  least  take  a  portion.  If  South  Carolina 
has  a  majority  of  black  people,  I  prefer  that  she 
should  have  loyal  black  rather  than  disloyal  white 
representatives.  And  therefore  I  say,  secondly,  that 
the  constitutional  amendment,  right  in  itself  and 
necessary  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  restora 
tion  of  the  Union,  is  wholly  insufficient  as  a  final 
and  complete  measure  of  pacification  ;  and  it  is  bet 
ter  for  the  country  to  reject  it  altogether,  and  fight 
out  the  battle  upon  the  plain  issue  of  human  rights, 
equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men,  than  to  accept 
this  as  a  complete  and  final  measure  of  restoration. 
There  is  a  third  proposition,  that  the  Union  shall 
be  restored,  the  constitutional  amendment  being 
adopted,  whenever  these  States  shall  inaugurate  a 
system  of  impartial,  restricted  suffrage,  whenever 
they  shall  be  ready  to  declare  that  any  man  who  can 
read  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  or  write 
his  own  name,  or  who  owns  property  of  the  value 
of  two  hundred  dollars,  is  entitled  to  the  right  of 
franchise ;  the  law  to  apply  to  the  black  man  and 
the  white  man  alike.  I  regard  this  plan  of  re 
storation  as  delusive  and  dangerous  in  the  highest 
degree.  In  Massachusetts,  where  there  is  a  system 
of  public  instruction,  where  there  are  public  schools 
that  furnish  as  good  an  education  as  was  afforded 
by  Harvard  College  eighty  years  ago,  we  may  with 
some  degree  of  propriety  say  that  no  man  shall 
be  entitled  to  vote  unless  he  can  read  and  write ; 
for  we  place  before  him  the  means  of  knowledge. 
But  are  you  to  say  this  to  the  three  million  people 
who  are  in  those  ten  States,  and  who  have  been 


550  RECONSTRUCTION. 

denied  every  opportunity  and  every  means  of  ac 
quiring  education  ;  men,  women,  and  children  who 
are  ignorant  because  it  has  been,  and  is  to-day, 
as  far  as  the  public  sentiment  is  expressed,  a  crime 
to  teach  them  ?  When  you  erect  schools  by  charity, 
the  enemies  of  freedom  give  them  to  the  flames, 
and  the  Southern  horizon  is  lighted  up  by  the 
fires  of  the  burning  houses  that  the  North  has 
erected  for  the  education  of  the  negroes.  When 
you  have  said  that  no  person  can  vote  in  the  ten 
States  except  on  these  conditions,  you  have  offered 
an  additional  inducement  to  the  rebels  to  pre 
vent  the  education  of  the  freedmen.  If  you  con 
sent  to  the  reconstruction  of  this  government  upon 
the  basis  that  those  only  shall  vote  in  the  ten 
States  who  can  read  and  write,  you  have  excluded 
the  whole  negro  population  of  the  South  from  the 
ballot-box,  and  you  have  placed,  perhaps  for  a  cen 
tury,  power  in  the  hands  of  the  rebel  slaveholding 
classes  of  that  region  of  the  country.  I  think  this 
one  objection  alone  is  sufficient  to  condemn  the 
proposition  for  impartial,  restricted  suffrage. 

I  come,  then,  to  what  I  believe  offers  the  only  safe 
way  out  of  our  present  difficulties.  The  constitu 
tional  amendment  recognizes  all  persons  born  in 
this  country  as  citizens  of  the  country ;  but,  after  all, 
it  is  insufficient  and  untrustworthy,  unless  you  add 
thereto  universal  suffrage  in  the  ten  States.  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  I  suppose  that  the  extension 
of  the  elective  franchise  to  the  negro  population  of 
the  South  will  at  once  remove  all  our  difficulties. 
I  do  not  expect  that  there  will  be  then  everywhere 
peace.  I  suppose  there  will  be  resistance  on  the 


RECONSTRUCTION.  551 

part  of  the  whites,  and  very  likely  there  will  be 
blood  shed  in  some  places,  and  lives  may  be  lost ; 
but  after  a  little  excitement  and  some  resistance, 
after  a  few  struggles,  the  people  of  the  South  will 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  they  had  better  submit. 
Out  of  the  four  million  white  people  of  the  South, 
we  may  expect  that  a  million  will  ally  themselves 
with  the  government.  They  will  be  willing  to 
unite  with  the  negro  population  for  the  restora 
tion  of  the  State  governments  upon'  a  loyal  tiasis. 
When  we  have  secured  this,  we  may  then  con 
sider  that  other  question,  which  some  persons 
desire  to  have  considered  before  all  other  things 
in  the  matter  of  restoration,  —  the  question  of  am 
nesty  to  the  rebels,  either  partial  or  universal.  I 
agree  that  not  much  time  can  pass  after  the  restora 
tion  of  the  rebel  States  to  the  Union  before  the  men 
who  have  participated  in  the  rebellion  will  be  re 
stored  to  their  political  rights.  I  expect  this  result, 
and,  upon  the  whole,  I  desire  it ;  but  what  I  seek 
most  to  guard  against  is  the  restoration,  upon 
dangerous  conditions,  of  the  States  that  have  been 
disloyal  to  the  Union.  What  is  the  aspect  of  pub 
lic  affairs  in  the  South  to-day  ?  What  are  we  to 
expect,  if  the  government  shall  be  restored  upon 
an  unjust  basis  ?  It  is  humiliating  to  admit,  but  it 
is  nevertheless  true,  that  the  South,  as  a  whole,  is  in 
a  more  unpromising  condition  to-day  than  it  was  a 
year  and  a  half  since.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that 
throughout  these  ten  States,  from  Virginia  to  Texas, 
there  is  one  grand  carnival  of  all  the  spirits  of 
disquiet,  disorder,  and  bloodshed ;  and  I  cannot 
refrain  from  the  remark  that  this  condition  of 


552  EECONSTRUCTION. 

things  is  due,  in  a  large  measure,  to  the  course 
which  Mr.  Johnson  has  chosen  to  pursue.  If  he 
had  refrained  from  issuing  a  proclamation  of  peace ; 
if  he  had  been  disposed  to  wield  the  great  powers 
of  the  government  in  the  interests  of  loyalty  and 
of  the  Union,  it  would  have  been  in  his  hand  to 
have  maintained  order  and  peace  throughout  that 
whole  region  of  country.  But  what  is  its  condi 
tion  to-day  ?  The  Civil  Rights  Bill,  passed  by  Con 
gress  by  a  constitutional  majority  notwithstanding 
the  opposition  of  the  President,  is  a  dead  letter. 
The  Freedmen's  Bureau  Bill  is  disregarded.  I  have 
received  letters  from  officers  of  the  army,  stationed 
throughout  the  South  with  small  squads  of  men,  in 
which  they  declare  that  they  are  powerless  to  serve 
the  country,  and  protect  the  loyal  blacks  or  whites 
in  that  region.  They  are  insulted  by  the  rebels. 
The  army  of  the  republic,  through  its  officers  or 
their  representatives,  is  constantly  insulted,  its 
power  disregarded,  and  the  authority  of  the  gov 
ernment  everywhere  contemned.  We  know,  too, 
for  the  testimony  is  conclusive,  that  colored  men, 
freemen,  are  murdered  frequently;  not  a  single 
case,  here  and  there,  but  by  tens  and  hundreds; 
and  from  Texas  it  is  reported  that  even  more  than 
a  thousand  have  been  thus  sacrificed.  Throughout 
the  whole  South  the  black  people  are  insecure  in 
their  lives,  in  their  persons,  and  in  their  rights,  and 
nowhere  in  that  vast  region  of  country  is  there 
power  to  protect  them.  I  know  not,  in  the  his 
tory  of  nations,  a  more  melancholy  example  than 
that  which  this  government  exhibits  to-day  in  the 
condition  of  the  Southern  country.  I  say  further, 


RECONSTRUCTION.  553 

after  most  careful  reflection,  that  I  see  no  possible 
way  out  of  these  difficulties  while  the  present  chief 
magistrate  is  at  the  head  of  the  government. 
Congress  is  strong ;  it  has  received  the  support  of 
the  people  ;  it  has  now  a  two-thirds  majority  in  each 
House,  to  be  increased  in  the  Fortieth  Congress ;  and 
it  can  pass  whatever  measures  it  prefers,  notwith 
standing  the  President's  veto.  But,  after  all,  it  is 
helpless  to  execute ;  it  has  no  hand  by  which  it  can 
wield  or  control  the  powers  of  the  government. 
Therefore  I  say,  that,  during  the  two  years  following 
the  4th  of  next  March,  if  Mr.  Johnson  continues 
to  be  President  of  the  United  States,  no  efficient 
steps  can  be  taken  for  the  restoration  of  the  gov 
ernment.  Disorder  will  still  be  the  rule  in  the 
South.  To-day  we  know  very  well  that  citizens  of 
the  North  who  went  South  during  the  last  twelve  or 
eighteen  months  to  develop  the  resources  and  apply 
their  skill  and  industry  to  that  country,  are  prepar 
ing  to  abandon  it  and  to  come  away.  There  is  little 
probability  that  the  next  year  will  yield  an  amount 
of  cotton  equal  to  the  product  of  the  year  1866. 

I  make  no  prediction  as  to  what  the  future  has  in 
store  for  us  with  reference  to  the  President;  but  I 
only  say,  that,  if  he  continues  in  office  during  the 
two  years  to  come,  I  know  not  of  any  means  by 
which  human  life  can  be  protected,  by  which  human 
rights  shall  be  regarded  as  sacred,  or  by  which  any 
efficient  means  can  be  taken  for  the  restoration  of 
the  ten  States  to  their  ancient  place  in  the  govern 
ment  of  the  country.  We  have,  then,  before  us,  for 
these  two  years  for  the  South,  ignorance,  poverty, 
and  misrule. 


554  RECONSTRUCTION. 

Further,  the  transfer  of  the  government  of  that 
region  of  country  to  the  rebels,  to  the  slaveholders, 
means  repudiation  of  all  the  public  debts  which 
those  ten  States  owe.  Virginia  is  indebted  $43,- 
000,000,  exclusive  of  what  she  incurred  on  account 
of  the  rebellion.  Returning  to  the  census  of  1860, 
we  find  that  the  average  annual  product  in  the  free 
States  was  $131  for  each  person.  In  the  slave 
States,  the  annual  product  was  $70  for  each  person ; 
giving  an  excess  in  favor  of  the  free  States  of  $61. 
If  you  compare  Massachusetts,  a  good  representa 
tive  of  the  free  States,  with  Maryland,  the  most 
prosperous  of  the  old  slave  States,  you  will  find, 
that,  exclusive  of  her  returns  for  commerce  in  1860, 
the  annual  product  in  Massachusetts  was  $235  for 
each  person,  and  in  Maryland  only  $96,  an  excess, 
however,  of  nearly  fifty  per  cent  over  the  average 
of  the  South,  but  still  giving  a  balance  of  $139  in 
favor  of  Massachusetts.  And  this  balance,  this 
excess,  is  due,  not  to  any  superior  physical  capacity 
on  the  part  of  the  people  of  the  North,  not  due  to 
any  superior  intellectual  or  natural  ability,  but  due 
simply  to  the  fact  that  our  people  are  educated,  and 
to  the  consequent  fact  that  here  labor  is  honored 
by  all  classes  of  people.  In  the  South,  the  laboring 
population  is  ignorant,  labor  is  considered  dishon 
orable,  and,  as  a  natural  consequence,  the  laboring 
classes  produce  very  little.  The  political  economical 
problem  to  be  worked  out  by  the  people  of  this 
country  is  to  re-establish  government  in  the  South ; 
to  restore  those  States  to  the  Union  upon  such  a 
basis  that  the  laboring  people  shall  be  educated,  and 
labor  consequently  made  honorable.  You  will  see 


RECONSTRUCTION.  555 

the  productive  power  of  the  people  of  the  South 
thereby  increased  fifty  to  one  hundred  per  cent. 
Therefore  it  is  of  importance  to  business  men,  not 
so  much  with  reference  to  this  year  or  the  next 
two  years,  —  for  I  suppose  business  men  will  con 
sider  this  matter  in  a  broad  view,  and  for  a  long 
period  of  time,  for  a  period  of  ten,  twenty,  or  fifty 
years, — that  the  government  be  reconstructed  upon 
the  right  basis. 

Let  us  consider  another  fact.  In  those  ten  States 
there  were,  in  the  year  1860,  eight  million  people. 
If  you  can  so  educate  those  eight  million  people  as 
that  their  abilities  shall  be  applied  to  the  work  of 
production  as  efficiently  as  the  people  of  the  North 
apply  their  abilities,  and  the  average  should  go  up 
from  |70  for  each  person  to  1131,  the  average  of 
the  North,  you  will  thereby  add  in  a  single  year  to 
the  production  of  the  South  the  sum  of  $487,946,- 
000.  A  fifth  of  the  entire  public  debt  of  the  United 
States  would  be  added  to  the  resources  of  the  coun 
try  in  a  single  year,  if  you  could  give  to  the  people 
of  the  South  the  productive  power  which  is  exhibited 
and  enjoyed  by  the  people  of  the  North. 

The  continuance  of  the  existing  state  of  things 
at  the  South,  or  the  restoration  of  the  Union 
according  to  the  President's  way,  or  upon  the  mere 
ratification  of  the  amendments  to  the  Constitution, 
or  upon  the  system  of  impartial  but  restricted 
suffrage,  means,  then,  repudiation  of  the  State 
debts.  Does  anybody  suppose  Virginia  can  pay  a 
debt  of  $43,000,000  unless  she  is  regenerated, 
unless  her  people  are  able  so.  to  improve  their 
powers  of  production  as  to  augment  the  resources 


556  RECONSTRUCTION. 

of  that  region  far  beyond  its  previous  development  ? 
New  England  must  be  carried  to  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina,  Ohio  must  be  carried  to  Georgia 
and  Alabama,  New  York  must  be  carried  to  South 
Carolina,  before  the  natural  advantages  of  that 
country  will  be  so  developed  as  to  enable  the  people 
to  pay  the  debts  they  owe.  And,  again,  the  restora 
tion  of  this  government,  with  the  South  a  unit 
against  the  Union,  means  repudiation  of  the  debt 
of  the  United  States.  I  do  not  stop  to  dwell  upon 
that. 

It  is  also  to  be  observed,  that,  unless  the  South 
can  be  restored  upon  a  basis  such  as  I  have  indi 
cated,  there  can  be  no  resumption  of  specie  pay 
ments  for  a  long  period  of  time.  One  difficulty  in 
reference  to  the  resumption  of  specie  payments  is 
this :  that  three,  four,  or  five  hundred  million  of 
our  public  securities  are  owned  abroad.  Whenever 
there  is  a  panic  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
as  there  was  upon  the  opening  of  the  late  Conti 
nental  war,  and  there  is  a  demand  for  gold,  these 
securities  will  be  worth  more  in  our  markets  than 
they  are  in  foreign  markets,  and  they  will  be  sent 
here  in  quantities  of  twenty-five,  fifty,  or  a  hundred 
million  dollars,  according  to  the  necessities  or  the 
fears  of  the  people  on  the  other  side ;  the  proceeds 
drawn  from  our  banks,  if  they  should  be  paying 
specie ;  and  the  banks  consequently  will  be  com 
pelled  to  suspend.  Therefore  one  of  the  difficul 
ties  which  we  have  to  encounter,  and  which  we  must 
look  in  the  face  while  we  have  so  large  a  public 
debt,  a  portion  of  which  is  owned  abroad,  is,  that, 
whenever  there  is  a  panic  in  Europe,  there  will  be  a 


RECONSTRUCTION.  557 

demand  upon  the  banks  and  upon  the  people  of  this 
country  for  specie.  One  of  the  benefits  to  be  de 
rived  from  the  restoration  of  order  in  the  South  is, 
that  you  apply  the  labor  of  that  section  of  country 
to  the  production  of  those  articles  which  are  a  sub 
stitute  for  specie.  We  produce  grain  in  the  West 
in  vast  quantities ;  but  the  condition  of  transporta 
tion  between  the  West  and  the  Atlantic  coast  is 
such  that  we  cannot  expect  to  export  quantities  of 
grain  sufficient  to  meet  an  exigency  such  as  I  have 
indicated.  But,  if  we  can  apply  the  labor  of  the 
South  in  the  most  productive  way,  we  can  augment 
the  quantity  of  cotton  produced  from  two  to  four, 
six,  eight,  or  even  to  ten  million  bales,  and  supply 
Europe,  supply,  indeed,  the  whole  world,  with  the 
kind  of  cotton  which  this  country  produces.  Cot 
ton  is  perhaps  the  nearest  to  specie  of  any  product 
of  the  soil.  When  the  Southern  country  is  cut  up 
into  small  holdings,  when  the  negro  population  shall 
be  stimulated  to  produce  cotton  by  the  incentive 
which  stimulates  us  all,  personal  pecuniary  advan 
tages,  the  South  will  produce  many  million  bales  of 
cotton  annually  in  excess  of  any  previous  production. 
Cotton  will  be  a  substitute  for  specie ;  and,  in  the 
nature  of  the  case,  it  is  the  chief  means  upon  which 
we  can  rely  to  meet  the  balances  abroad.  Until 
the  South  is  regenerated,  until  the  labor  of  that 
section  of  country  is  wisely  and  profitably  applied 
to  the  production  of  cotton,  it  is  a  very  grave  ques 
tion,  whether,  in  view  of  the  large  amount  of  our 
public  debt  owned  abroad,  the  banks  of  this  country 
can  resume  and  maintain  specie  payments. 

In  the  next  place,  until  there  is  a  restoration  of 


558  RECONSTRUCTION. 

the  Union  upon  sound  principles,  there  must  be  a 
degree  of  weakness  in  the  government,  which  can- 
iiot  by  any  means  be  overcome.  If  we  have  ten, 
twelve,  or  fourteen  States  known  to  be  hostile  to 
the  government,  what  is  our  condition  for  protect 
ing  our  rights  ?  I  am  not  alarmed  in  regard  to  any 
attempt  on  the  part  of  other  governments  to  inter 
fere  with  the  United  States ;  but  it  is  a  humiliation 
to  every  American  citizen,  that  the  country  is  in 
such  a  condition  that  we  cannot  assert  our  rights 
under  any  circumstances  and  against  all  odds.  Mr. 
Johnson,  as  you  have  seen,  has  just  sent  two  am 
bassadors  to  Mexico.  Laboring  under  the  delusion 
that  he  has  restored  this  government  to  peace, 
order,  and  quiet,  he  thinks  the  time  has  come  when 
he  can  interfere  in  Mexico,  and  undertake  to  man 
age  Maximilian,  Juarez,  and  all  the  rest  who  are 
contending  for  supremacy  in  that  distracted  country. 
As  far  as  Mr.  Johnson  is  concerned,  I  think'  he  had 
better  not  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  other  govern 
ments  until  he  has  clearer  evidence  of  his  success 
in  managing  the  affairs  of  his  own  country. 

I  may  be  justified  in  an  observation  rather  aside 
from  my  theme.  The  "people  of  this  country  will 
not  hesitate  to  declare  their  rights  in  reference  to 
the  claims  upon  England  for  depredations  by  the 
"  Alabama "  and  other  piratical  corsairs  upon  our 
commerce  ;  they  will  not  hesitate  to  maintain  the  an 
cient  traditional  doctrine  of  this  country,  that  it  is 
an  offense  for  any  foreign  nation  to  attempt  by  force 
or  by  external  pressure  to  establish  a  monarchy 
upon  this  continent;  they  will  not  hesitate  to  de 
clare  their  opinions  upon  every  question  concerning 


RECONSTRUCTION.  559 

the  rights  of  the  people :  but  I  take  it  for  granted 
that  neither  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  nor 
the  people  will  intrust  Mr.  Johnson  or  Mr.  Seward 
with  any  power  whatever  to  interfere  in  the  affairs 
of  Mexico,  to  press  our  claims  for  compensation 
on  Great  Britain,  or  to  offer  any  offense  to  the 
Emperor  of  the  French.  They  know  perfectly  well 
that  we  can  delay  all  these  questions  until  after 
the  4th  of  March,  1869 ;  and  then,  if  we  choose  to 
interfere  in  the  affairs  of  Mexico,  we  may  do  it  with 
the  certainty  that  we  shall  have  the  power  to  exe 
cute  what  we  undertake ;  if  we  choose  to  demand 
compensation  from  Great  Britain,  we  can  do  it  with 
every  reason  to  believe  that  she  will  concede  what 
we  shall  consider  right  and  just.  They  also  know 
that  the  French  emperor  will  withdraw  his  troops 
from  Mexico  long  before  the  4th  of  March,  1869 ; 
that  it  is  not  for  us  now  to  assert  offensively  any 
right  we  may  have,  however  just  it  may  be ;  that 
in  our  strength  we  can  afford  to  rest,  confident 
that  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  there  will  be 
an  executive  department  of  the  government  repre 
senting  the  judgment  and  opinion  and  purpose  of 
the  people  of  this  country,  and  an  executive  depart 
ment  disposed  to  execute  this  purpose  under  the 
Constitution,  and  according  to  the  laws  of  the 
land.  The  South  itself  will  come  soon  to  the  opin 
ion  that  those  who  demand  universal  suffrage  and 
the  restoration  of  the  government  upon  sound  prin 
ciples  are,  after  all,  its  best  friends.  The  South 
will  discover  soon,  that  Mr.  Johnson  himself,  whether 
intentionally  or  not,  is  in  reality  its  worst  enemy. 
No  man  has  done  more  to  injure  the  cause  of  the 
South  than  he. 


560  KECONSTRUCTION. 

Of  all  things,  the  necessity  of  the  Southern  peo 
ple,  when  the  rebellion  was  overthrown,  was  this : 
that  the  man  in  the  presidential  chair  should  enjoy 
the  confidence  of  the  loyal  citizens  of  the  country. 
Enjoying  their  confidence,  he  could  have  done  those 
things  in  behalf  of  the  South  which  were  necessary 
for  its  prosperity  and  security ;  but  such  is  the  pop 
ular  impression  now  in  regard  to  Mr.  Johnson 
throughout  the  whole  North,  that  he  is  utterly  in 
capable  of  taking  any  step  for  the  support  of  the 
just  rights  of  the  people  of  that  section.  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  death  was  as  great  a  calamity  to  the  South 
as  to  the  North.  By  his  death  they  were  deprived 
of  the  benign  influence  of  his  administration,  and 
the  conduct  of  his  successor  led  them  to  expect 
a  restoration  of  the  ancient  order  of  things,  when 
they  controlled  the  policy  of  the  United  States. 
in  that  expectation  they  are  to  be  disappointed; 
but  it  has  had  an  evil  effect.  They  have  under 
taken  to  assume  authority  and  to  exercise  power 
in  their  respective  localities  as  though  the  ancient 
order  of  things  had  been  restored  already,  and  now 
the  work  of  restoration  upon  sound  principles  is 
made  more  and  more  difficult.  But,  from  what 
I  know  of  the  purpose  and  opinion  of  Congress,  I 
do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  great  majority  of 
the  loyal  members  of  the  two  houses  are  in  favor 
of  declaring,  by  solemn  resolution  or  public  act, 
that  the  governments  set  up  in  these  ten  States 
are  illegal  and  invalid.  It  is  their  purpose  also,  by 
legislative  authority,  to  establish  governments  in 
those  districts,  —  call  them  territorial  governments, 
or  what  you  will ;  and,  in  the  act  establishing  those 


RECONSTRUCTION.  561 

governments,  to  decide  that  all  loyal  male  citizens 
shall  be  entitled  to  the  right  of  suffrage. 

I  believe  the  time  has  come  when  we  ought  to 
cut  clear  of  all  theories  and  of  all  speculations 
concerning  the  rights  of  the  people  of  that  section 
of  the  country,  growing  out  of  their  ancient  rela 
tions  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  It 
is  our  duty  to  establish  institutions  upon  the  fun 
damental  principles  of  natural  justice,  beginning 
at  the  foundation,  recognizing  the  rights  of  men 
because  they  are  men,  and  building  up  governments 
republican  in  form ;  and,  whether  the  time  necessary 
for  the  consummation  of  this  plan  be  one  year,  or 
five  years,  or  ten  years,  we  shall  appeal  to  the  peo 
ple  to  maintain  that  policy  unto  the  end. 


562 


TEST -OATH    FOR    ATTORNEYS    IN    THE 
COURTS   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

REMARKS  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  JAN.  22, 1867.* 

MR.  BOUTWELL,  from  the  Committee  on  the 
Judiciary,  reported  House  Bill  No.  239,  to 
prescribe  an  oath  for  public  officers  and  members 
of  the  bar,  and  for  other  purposes,  with  an  amend 
ment  in  the  nature  of  a  substitute  therefor,  by 
striking  out  all  after  the  enacting  clause,  and  insert 
ing  the  following :  — 

"  That  no  person  shall  be  permitted  to  act  as  an  attor 
ney  or  counsellor  in  any  court  of  the  United  States  who 
has  been  guilty  of  treason,  bribery,  murder,  or  other  felony, 
or  who  has  been  engaged  in  any  rebellion  against  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  or  who  has  given  aid, 
comfort,  or  encouragement  to  the  enemies  of  the  United 
States  in  armed  hostility  thereto. 

SEC.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  first  sec 
tion  of  this  act  is  hereby  declared  to  be  a  rule  of  every 
court  of  the  United  States. 

SEC.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  judge  or  judges  of  any  such  court,  when  the 
suggestion  is  made  in  open  court  that  any  person  acting 
as  an  attorney  or  counsellor  of  said  court,  or  offering  or 
proposing  to  so  act,  is  barred  by  the  provisions  of  this  act, 

*  On  the  twenty-third  day  of  January,  the  bill  passed  by  a  vote 
of  one  hundred  and  eight  yeas  to  forty-two  nays. 


TEST-OATH   FOE   ATTORNEYS.  563 

or  whenever  said  judge  or  judges  shall  believe  that  such 
person  is  so  barred,  to  inquire  and  ascertain  whether  such 
person  had  been  guilty  of  treason,  bribery,  murder,  or 
other  felony,  or  whether  he  has  been  engaged  in  any 
rebellion  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States,  or 
whether  he  has  given  aid,  comfort,  or  encouragement  to 
the  enemies  of  the  United  States  in  armed  hostility  thereto ; 
and  if  the  court  shall  be  of  opinion  that  such  person  has 
been  guilty  of  treason,  bribery,  murder,  or  other  felony, 
or  that  he  has  been  engaged  in  any  rebellion  against  the 
Government  of  the  United  States,  or  that  he  has  given 
aid,  comfort,  or  encouragement  to  the  enemies  of  the  United 
States  in  armed  hostility  thereto,  to  exclude  and  debar 
such  person  from  the  office  of  attorney  or  counsellor  of 
said  court :  and  any  person  who  shall  testify  falsely  in  any 
examination  made  by  any  court  as  aforesaid  shall  be 
guilty  of  perjury,  and  liable  to  the  pains  and  penalties  of 
perjury." 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Mr.  Speaker,  the  amended  bill 
having  been  read  by  the  clerk,  I  shall  be  saved  the 
necessity  of  a  minute  explanation.  It  is  very  well 
known  that  the  majority  of  the  Supreme  Court  has 
declared  the  test-oath  unconstitutional,  as  far  as  by 
act  of  Congress  the  attempt  was  made  to  apply  it  to 
counsellors  and  attorneys  in  the  courts  of  the  United 
States.  The  purpose  of  this  bill  is  to  provide  by  a 
rule,  which,  under  the  Constitution  and  by  the  de 
cisions  of  the  courts  of  the  United  States,  it  is 
entirely  competent  for  the  legislative  department  of 
the  government  to  make  and  prescribe,  that  certain 
persons  shall  not  hold  the  office  of  attorney  or  coun 
sellor  in  any  national  court.  It  provides  that  per 
sons  who  are  guilty  of  certain  offences  shall  be 


564  TEST-OATH   FOB   ATTORNEYS. 

debarred  from  that  office  in  all  of  the  courts  of  the 
United  States. 

We  believe,  as  a  committee,  that  it  is  entirely 
competent  for  Congress  to  declare,  not  only  what 
the  rules  of  the  Supreme  Court  shall  be  in  reference 
to  this  particular  class  of  cases,  but  in  reference  to 
every  case  which  can  possibly  arise  in  the  judicial 
administration  of  the  law.  Congress,  by  the  Con 
stitution,  has  power  to  enact  all  laws  necessary  and 
proper  for  the  administration  of  the  executive  and 
judicial  departments  of  the  government ;  and  noth 
ing  can  be  more  eminently  proper  than  that  persons 
who  have  been  guilty,  as  is  in  this  bill  set  forth,  of 
treason,  bribery,  murder,  or  other  felony,  or  who 
have  participated  in  any  rebellion  against  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States,  or  have  given  aid, 
comfort,  counsel,  or  encouragement  to  the  enemies 
of  the  United  States  in  armed  hostility  thereto, 
should  be  deprived  of  the  privilege  of  appearing  as 
officers  of  the  government  in  any  court  of  the  United 
States. 

It  is  not  a  punishment.  The  opinion  of  the  court 
that  persons  are  guilty  of  any  of  the  offences  enu 
merated  in  this  bill  is  not  evidence  elsewhere  by 
which  those  persons  are  to  be  deprived  of  any  right 
whatever.  It  does  not  even  deprive  them  of  the 
power  of  practising  in  the  vocation  of  attorneys  or 
counsellors,  but  merely  says  that  persons  who  are 
of  such  character  and  such  known  repute,  based 
upon  the  actual  facts  of  their  lives,  are  unworthy 
to  appear  in  the  judicial  tribunals  of  the  country,  to 
come  in  contact  with  the  officers  of  the  law,  to  exer 
cise  over  the  chief  judicial  magistrates  of  the  land 


TEST-OATH   FOR   ATTORNEYS.  565 

an  influence  deleterious  to  the  public  morals.  If 
there  be  five  judges  upon'  the  bench  of  the  highest 
tribunal  who  will  not  enact  rules  and  enforce  proper 
regulations  by  which  they  may  protect  themselves 
from  the  foul  contamination  of  conspirators  and 
traitors  against  the  constitution  of  the  country, 
then  the  time  has  already  arrived  when  the  legisla 
tive  department  of  the  government  should  exercise 
its  power  and  declare  who  shall  be  officers  of  the 
government  in  the  administration  of  the  law  in 
the  courts  of  the  Union ;  and  this  bill  is  for  that 
purpose.  I  am  directed  by  the  Committee  on  the 
Judiciary  to  report  the  bill. 

[After  debate  by  several  members,  Mr.  Boutwell 
proceeded.] 

If  the  House  will  pardon  me,  I  think  that  by 
the  record  I  can  demonstrate  concisely  that  Con 
gress  is  justified  in  this  proceeding.  The  gentle 
man  from  New  Jersey  [Mr.  Rogers]  was  pleased 
to  say  that  this  bill  contemplates  a  new  mode  of 
trial.  No  one  better  knows  than  the  gentleman 
from  New  Jersey  that  the  provisions  of  this  bill 
with  reference  to  an  examination  into  the  character 
of  a  counsellor  are  in  exact  accordance  with  the 
practice  in  every  court  in  this  country,  and  in  Great 
Britain.  If  it  be  suggested  in  open  court,  that  a 
man  has  been  guilty  in  any  time  past  of  an  act 
which  unfits  him,  either  according  to  law  or  in  the 
judgment  of  the  court,  to  pursue  his  profession 
and  hold  office  as  a  practitioner,  the  court  pro 
ceeds  to  inquire  whether  the  suggestions  are  true, 
not  as  a  criminal  is  charged  upon  the  criminal  side 
of  a  court,  but  merely  for  the  purpose  of  reaching 


566  TEST-OATH   FOR   ATTORNEYS. 

an  opinion  which  has  only  this  effect,  that  it  deter 
mines  the  future  standing 'of  the  party  in  court,  but 
does  not  anywhere  else  affect  him  in  his  rights. 

Mr.  ROGERS.  —  I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman 
what  is  the  best  proof  that  a  man  is  guilty  of  the 
offences  referred  to  in  this  bill,  treason,  murder,  &c.? 
Can  you  prove  it  in  any  way  except  by  the  produc 
tion  of  a  record  of  his  conviction  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Undoubtedly  the  production 
of  the  record  of  conviction  is  the  best  evidence  of 
the  guilt  of  the  party ;  but  that  is  not  the  only 
evidence  that  a  court  may  take.  It  may  go  into 
an  examination  of  charges  which  have  never  been 
brought  before  a  criminal  tribunal ;  and,  if  the  court 
is  convinced  that  the  party  is  guilty,  it  has  a  right 
to  deprive  him  of  the  privilege  of  practising  in  the 
court. 

Mr.  MAYNARD.  —  I  would  ask  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  whether  this  bill  amounts  to 
any  thing  more  than  a  statute  declaratory  of  what 
the  law  now  is  ?  Every  court  has  a  right  to  inquire 
into  the  character  of  its  officers ;  this  House  might 
inquire  into  the  conduct  of  any  one  of  its  members, 
or  of  its  Clerk  or  Sergeant-at-arms  or  Doorkeeper, 
and,  being  satisfied  of  his  guilt  of  the  charges 
brought  against  him,  might  set  him  aside.  I  would 
ask  if  this  is  any  thing  more  than  the  embodying  in 
a  statute  of  what  the  common  law  of  the  courts 
now  is. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  There  can  be  no  doubt  upon 
that  point.  And  I  say  *with  reference  to  the  recent 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  that  it  is  an  offence 
to  the  dignity  and  the  respectability  of  the  nation, 


TEST-OATH   FOR   ATTORNEYS.  567 

that  that  tribunal,  under  the  general  authority 
vested  in  it  by  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  does 
not  protect  itself  from  the  contamination  of  rebels 
and  traitors,  until  the  rebellion  itself  shall  be  sup 
pressed,  and  those  men  shall  be  restored  by  the 
political  department  of  the  government  to  their  for 
mer  rights  as  citizens  of  the  country.  The  Supreme 
Court  failing  in  the  performance  of  this  high  and 
self-protecting  duty,  the  time  has  arrived  when  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  by  whose  breath  alone 
the  Supreme  Court  enacts  rules  of  any  sort  or  admits 
any  man  to  the  office  of  counsellor  or  attorney  at 
its  bar,  should  assume  exact  and  specific  authority 
to  declare  by  solemn  law  that  men  who  have  been 
guilty  of  murder  or  treason  or  bribery,  or  who 
have  raised  their  arms  to  strike  down  the  govern 
ment  of  their  country,  shall  not  participate  in  the 
administration  of  the  laws  of  the  land  until  they 
are  absolved  from  their  crimes. 

It  is  not  enough  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
country  instructs  us  that  the  pardon  of  the  Presi 
dent  absolves  these  men  from  their  iniquities.  Sir, 
that  is  not  enough ;  the  pardon  of  the  President 
may  open  the  doors  of  jails  and  penitentiaries ;  it 
may  release  criminals  who  are  guilty  of  murder  or 
other  felony ;  but,  while  I  occupy  a  place  upon  this 
floor,  never  with  my  consent  shall  the  pardon  of 
the  President  be  a  certificate  on  which  a  felon  may 
enter  into  the  sacred  tribunals  of  the  land,  and 
assist  in  the  administration  of  justice. 


568  TEST-OATH    FOR   ATTORNEYS. 


SAME  SUBJECT,  JAN.  23,  1867. 

I  WISH,  in  closing  the  debate,  to  state  more  dis 
tinctly  than  I  have  stated  heretofore,  the  con 
stitutional  and  logical  argument  by  which  this  bill  is 
supported.     Among  the  enumerated  powers  of  Con 
gress  is  this :  — 

"  To  make  all  laws  which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper 
for  carrying  into  execution  the  foregoing  powers,  and  all 
other  powers  vested  by  this  Constitution  in  the  Govern 
ment  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  department  or  officer 
thereof." 

Following  the  enumeration  of  judicial  powers, 
the  Constitution  declares  :  — 

"  In  all  the  other  cases  before  mentioned,  the  Supreme 
Court  shall  have  appellate  jurisdiction,  both  as  to  law  and 
fact,  with  such  exceptions  and  under  such  regulations  as 
the  Congress  shall  make." 

Further  authority  is  given  by  the  Constitution  to 
Congress  in  these  words :  — 

"  But  the  Congress  may  by  law  vest  the  appointment 
of  such  inferior  -officers  as  they  may  deem  proper  in  the 
President  alone,  in  the  courts  of  law,  or  in  the  heads  of 
Departments." 

These  provisions  of  the  Constitution  sustain  Con 
gress  in  the  exercise  of  two  kinds  of  power :  First, 
in  the  enactment  of  all  laws  which  Congress  deems 
necessary  and  proper  to  carry  into  effect  any  of  the 
powers  vested  in  any  department  of  the  government ; 
and,  secondly,  the  authority  is  given  to  Congress  to 


TEST-OATH   FOR   ATTORNEYS.  569 

confer  on  the  courts  of  law,  as  well  as  on  the  de 
partments  of  the  government,  power  to  appoint 
such  inferior  officers  as  may  by  Congress  be  author 
ized. 

We  maintain  this  bill  by  maintaining  the  doctrine 
that  an  attorney  in  a  court  is  an  officer  of  the  gov 
ernment.  We  maintain  the  doctrine  by  the  ancient 
theory  and  rule,  as  old  as  the  British  law,  of  the 
official  character  of  a  counsellor  or  attorney.  From 
the  very  first  he  has  been  regarded  as  an  officer  of 
the  court.  The  Supreme  Court,  in  giving  the  deci 
sion  which  has  been  considered,  admit  that  an  at 
torney  is  an  officer  of  the  court,  although  they  deny 
that  he  is  an  officer  of  the  government.  The  admis 
sion,  which  can  be  easily  comprehended  by  any  man, 
overturns  the  singular  theory  of  the  court.  The 
Supreme  Court  itself  is  a  department  of  the  govern 
ment.  Every  court  inferior  to  the  Supreme  Court 
is  a  branch  or  judicial  agency  of  the  government; 
and  therefore  when  you  have  demonstrated  or  admit 
ted,  as  the  Supreme  Court  in  this  decision  has  ad 
mitted,  that  an  attorney  is  an  officer  of  the  court,  it 
follows  as  a  necessary  consequence,  from  which  there 
can  be  no  logical,  legal,  or  constitutional  escape,  that 
the  attorney  is  an  officer  of  the  government,  because 
the  court  itself  is  either  a  department  or  a  branch 
or  agency  of  the  government. 

Under  section  thirty-five  of  the  Judiciary  Act  of 
1789,  provision  is  made  by  law  for  the  appointment 
of  these  officers  by  the  court ;  and,  as  I  said  yester 
day,  the  court  derives  its  power  to  appoint  attorneys 
from  that  act.  But  for  that  act  they  would  be 
driven  back  upon  the  ancient  common-law  doctrine, 


570  TEST-OATH   FOR   ATTORNEYS. 

under  which  the  party  himself  was  required  to 
appear  in  court  and  defend  his  cause.  The  thirty- 
fifth  section  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  in  all  courts  of  the 
United  States  the  parties  may  plead  and  manage  their 
own  causes  personally,  or  by  the  assistance  of  such  counsel 
or  attorn eys-at-law  as  by  the  rules  of  the  said  courts, 
respectively,  shall  be  permitted  to  manage  and  conduct 
causes  therein." 

Therefore  the  authority  of  the  court  to  appoint 
an  attorney  is  derived  from  the  Judiciary  Act  of 
1789,  framed  by  the  fathers  of  the  Constitution ; 
and,  without  the  authority  of  that  act,  the  court' 
would  not  to-day  possess  constitutional  or  legal 
power  to  admit  a  single  attorney  to  the  performance 
of  his  ordinary  functions  in  any  court  of  the  United 
States.  They  are  entirely  devoid  of  power  to  enact 
rules  for  their  own  government,  except  through  the 
act  of  March  2,  1793,  which  provides,  — 

"  That  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  several  courts  of  the 
United  States  from  time  to  time,  as  occasion  may  require, 
to  make  rules  and  orders  for  their  respective  courts, 
directing  the  returning  of  writs  and  processes,  the  filing  of 
declarations  and  other  pleadings,  the  taking  of  rules,  the 
entering  and  making  up  judgments  by  default,  and  other 
matters,  in  the  vacation  and  otherwise,  in  a  manner  not 
repugnant  to  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  &c." 

They  have  power  by  the  authority  of  law  to  make 
their  rules,  and  that  is  the  only  power  they  have 
on  the  subject.  The  law  limits  this  power  by 
declaring  that  they  shall  not  make  any  rules  except 
such  as  are  in  conformity  to  the  laws  of  the  United 


TEST-OATH   FOR   ATTORNEYS.  571 

States.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
many  years  ago,  through  the  decision  of  Justice 
Story,  recognized  the  authority  of  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  in  this  matter.  He  says :  — 

"  So  far  as  the  acts  of  Congress  have  adopted  the  forms 
of  process  and  modes  of  proceeding  and  pleadings  in  the 
State  courts,  or  have  authorized  the  courts  thereof  to 
adopt  them,  and  they  have  been  actually  adopted,  they 
are  obligatory,  but  no  further.  But  no  court  of  the  United 
States  is  authorized  to  adopt  by  rule  any  provisions  of 
State  laws  which  are  repugnant  to  or  incompatible  with 
the  positive  enactments  of  Congress  upon  the  subject  of 
.the  jurisdiction  or  practice  or  proceedings  in  such  court." 
—  Reary  et  al.  vs.  The  Farmers'  and  Merchants'  Bank  of  « 
Memphis,  16  Peters,  p.  94. 

It  is  from  the  Constitution  and  laws,  and  decisions 
of  the  courts,  then,  that  we  derive  the  authority  to 
pass  any  rule  which  we  think  necessary  and  proper 
for  the  performance  of  the  duties  devolved  upon 
the  courts  of  the  country.  If  we  have  authority  to 
give  the  courts  power  to  make  their  own  rules,  we 
have  authority  to  prescribe  exactly  and  definitely  the 
rules  by  which  the  courts  shall  be  governed;  and, 
upon  this  statement  of  the  matter,  I  submit  the  bill 
to  the  House. 


572 


GOVERNMENT    OF    THE    INSURRECTION 
ARY    STATES.* 

REMARKS  UPON  THE  BILL  TO   PROVIDE  FOR  THE  MORE  EFFICIENT 
GOVERNMENT   OF  THE  INSURRECTIONARY  STATES,  FEB.  9,  1867. 

[Mr.  Raymond,  of  New  York,  having  the  floor,  suggested  that  the 
Bill  should  be  recommitted  to  the  Committee  on  Reconstruction.] 

ONLY  a  few  days  since,  a  bill  of  a  different  sort'- 
from  that  now  pending  was  before  this  House ; 
and  a  majority  of  the  House  —  I  believe  the  gentle 
man  from  New  York  [Mr.  Raymond]  was  of  that 
majority  —  desired  to  refer  the  whole  subject  to  the 
Committee  on  Reconstruction.  The  various  propo 
sitions  were  so  referred.  They  have  been  con 
sidered  by  that  committee ;  and  I  believe  I  am  guilty 
of  no  breach  of  confidence  when  I  say  that  never 
has  any  report  been  made  which  was  so  unani 
mously  supported  by  its  different  members  as  the 
one  now  under  consideration ;  nor  has  any  bill  sub 
mitted  by  that  committee  ever  been  so  carefully 
considered  as  this. 

We  have  now  spent  two  days  and  more  in  the 
discussion  of  the  present  measure.  We  have  but 
eight  or  ten  days  in  which,  as  a  legislative  body,  we 
can  act.  I  hold  that  it  would  be  the  greatest  of 
public  calamities,  if  this  Congress  should  adjourn 
without  an  expression,  both  on  the  part  of  the 
*  See  Appendix  II. 


GOVERNMENT  OF  INSURRECTIONARY  STATES.      573 

House  and  of  the  Senate,  of  the  opinions  enter 
tained  by  the  representatives  of  the  country  in 
reference  to  this  measure.  It  is  now  to  be  seen 
plainly,  that,  if  the  bill  be  recommitted,  there  can  be 
no  proper  reconsideration  of  the  subject  by  a  new 
committee,  no  conclusion  reached,  no  report  made, 
much  less  any  action  had,  even  by  this  branch  of 
the  government,  within  the  period  to  which  we  are 
limited  by  the  Constitution  of  the  country  for  the 
consideration  of  this  measure,  and  the  passage  of  a 
law  over  the  President's  objections. 

To-day  there  are  eight  million  and  more  of  peo 
ple,  occupying  six  hundred  and  thirty  thousand 
square  miles  of  the  territory  of  this  country,  who 
are  writhing  under  cruelties  nameless  in  their  char 
acter, —  injustice  such  as  has  not  been  permitted 
to  exist  in  any  other  country  in  modern  times; 
and  all  this  because  in  this  capitol  there  sits  en 
throned  a  man  who,  as  far  as  the  executive  depart 
ment  is  concerned,  guides  the  destinies  of  the 
republic  in  the  interest  of  rebels ;  and  because, 
also,  in  those  ten  former  States,  rebellion  itself, 
inspired  by  the  executive  department,  wields  all 
authority,  and  is  the  embodiment  of  law  and  power 
everywhere.  Until  in  the  South  this  obstacle  to 
reconstruction  is  removed,  there  can  be  no  effectual 
step  taken  toward  the  re-organization  of  the  govern 
ment  ;  and,  argue  as  gentlemen  may,  no  way  can  be 
devised  for  the  removal  of  this  obstacle  in  the  South, 
except  to  confide  the  work  to  Grant  and  Sherman 
and  Sheridan, — the  men  who  overthrew  the  rebellion 
when  it  was  flagrant  in  the  field,  but  not,  as  now, 
organized  in  the  government.  They  will  crush  out 


574      GOVERNMENT  OF  INSURRECTIONARY  STATES. 

the  despotisms  which  have  been  set  over  the  people, 
and  prepare  a  way  for  the  inauguration  of  civil 
authority.  You  might  as  well  expect  to  build  a  fire 
in  the  depths  of  the  ocean  as  expect  to  reconstruct 
loyal  civil  governments  in  the  South  until  you  have 
broken  down  the  rebel  despotism  which  everywhere 
holds  sway  in  that  vast  region  of  country. 

Therefore,  sir,  after  all  this  debate,  considering 
the  magnitude  of  the  question,  the  peril  in  which 
the  country  is  involved,  I,  for  my  part,  feel  it  to  be 
my  duty  to  insist  that  we  shall  hold  this  business 
in  our  hands  as  the  representatives  of  the'  people, 
and  take  the  judgment  of  the  House  upon  the 
question  whether  all  power  shall  be  surrendered 
to  the  rebels  of  the  South,  or  whether  we  shall 
exert  the  constitutional  authority  we  possess  over 
the  army  (which  is  our  servant  to-day,  and  will  be 
our  servant  in  the  interest  of  loyalty  through  all  this 
contest),  and  thus  break  down  the  governments 
which  have  been  illegally  set  up,  lay  a  basis  on 
which  we  may  be  able  to  build  civil  institutions, 
and,  as  soon  as  we  have  the  opportunity,  prepare  a 
way  for  their  establishment.  But  it  is  the  vainest 
of  delusions,  the  most  dangerous  of  aspirations,  to 
contemplate,  or  even  to  hope  for,  the  reconstruction 
of  civil  government,  until  the  rebel  despotisms  in 
those  ten  States  shall  be  broken  up. 


575 


GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES.* 

REMARKS  UPON  THE  BILL  TO  PROVIDE  FOR  THE  MORE  EFFECTUAL 
GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  INSURRECTIONARY  STATES,  FEB.  13,  1867. 

I  AM  aware  that  no  measure  can  be  more  unpala 
table  to  the  American  people  than  one  which 
provides  for  a  military  government ;  and  there  is  no 
position  in  which  I  can  myself  be  placed,  in  the 
performance  of  a  public  duty,  more  disagreeable 
than  that  of  an  advocate  of  military  rule.  I  shall, 
however,  make  no  apology  for  proceeding  to  the 
discussion  of  the  measure  before  the  House  by  the 
aid  of  commonplace  and  inartificial  processes  of 
examination  and  reasoning.  It  is  my  purpose,  first 
to  examine  this  bill  in  connection  with  the  amend 
ments  that  are  now  pending,  moved  by  the  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  the  part  of  the  House,  with  the 
design  of  relieving,  if  possibly  I  may,  the  force  of 
some  objections  which  have  been  made  to  its  pas 
sage.  I  shall  then  consider  the  amendments  pro 
posed  by  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr.  Bingham] 
and  the  gentleman  from  Maine  [Mr.  Elaine] ,  for  the 
purpose  of  showing  that  those  amendments  are  in 
consistent  with  the  vote  of  the  House  taken  yester 
day  in  reference  to  a  bill  for  the  reconstruction  of 
Louisiana,  and  that  they  are  also  vitally  and  danger 
ously  inconsistent  with  any  measure  for  the  perma- 
*  See  Appendix  II.  and  III. 


576  GOVERNMENT   OF   THE   EEBEL   STATES. 

nent  restoration  of  the  rebel  States  to  their  position 
and  influence  as  members  of  the  government.  Then, 
in  conclusion,  I  design  to  present  certain  general 
views  bearing  upon  the  question  of  military  author 
ity  in  the  ten  rebellious  States ;  showing,  that,  in  a 
large  degree,  the  present  condition  of  things  has 
arisen  from  the  policy  of  the  President,  —  a  policy 
for  which  we  are  in  no  proper  sense  responsible,  but 
which,  in  its  effects,  compels  us,  as  the  representa 
tives  of  the  people  and  as  the  law-making  power  in 
the  government,  bound  to  protect  all  who  are  with 
in  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Union  in  their  rights  of 
person,  property,  and  liberty,  to  resort  to  measures 
which  otherwise  we  could  neither  approve  nor  con 
template. 

It  has  been  objected,  that  the  committee  did  not 
propose,  in  connection  with  this  bill,  any  measure  or 
measures  for  the  restoration  of  civil  authority  in 
the  ten  States  recently  in  rebellion.  The  objection 
is  well  founded,  and  the  omission  may  have  been  a 
mistake  on  the  part  of  the  committee.  If  so,  it  is 
due  in  some  degree,  as  far  as  I  am  concerned,  to  an 
error  of  opinion  as  to  what  the  House  was  prepared 
to  do.  I  refer  now  to  the  vote  upon  the  passage  of 
the  bill  for  the  re-organization  of  Louisiana. 

It  will  be  very  well  remembered,  that,  on  former 
occasions  during  the  existence  of  this  Congress,  any 
proposition  contemplating  universal  manhood  suf 
frage  was  not  only  unanimously  opposed  on  the 
other  side  of  the  House,  but  it  failed  to  receive  the 
united  or  even  the  general  support  of  members 
upon  this  side  of  the  House.  It  therefore  naturally 
came  to  be  believed  in  the  committee,  that  if  we 


GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  REBEL   STATES.  577 

should  report  a  measure  which  provided  for  univer 
sal  manhood  suffrage,  either  in  one  of  these  States 
or  in  the  ten  States,  we  should  fail  to  combine  in 
its  favor  the  entire  support  even  of  the  loyal  party. 
I  have  now  to  say  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  note 
worthy  facts  in  the  history  of  this  great  contest, 
that  the  bill  providing  for  civil  government  in 
Louisiana,  which  passed  the  House  yesterday,  was 
discussed  to  some  extent  on  this  side,  and  for  two 
consecutive  hours  without  interruption  on  the  other 
side,  and  was  not,  I  believe,  opposed  by  any  gentle 
man  upon  the  ground  that  it  provided  for  universal 
manhood  suffrage  in  the  State  of  Louisiana.  Only 
one  gentleman  on  the  other  side  adverted  incident 
ally,  as  far  as  I  heard,  to  the  fact  that  there  was 
such  a  provision  in  the  bill. 

Mr.  FINCK.  —  Will  the  gentleman  yield  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  FINCK.  —  One  of  my  objections  to  the  bill  was, 
that  it  proposed  to  disfranchise  the  white  people  of 
Louisiana,  and  confer  suffrage  on  the  colored  people. 
I  made  that  point  distinctly. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  referred  to  the  gentleman 
[Mr.  Finck],  and  I  believe  I  did  not  misinterpret 
the  force  of  his  observations.  It  was  a  passing, 
incidental  objection,  instead  of  being  in  the  fore 
front  of  the  reasons  why  the  bill  for  the  reconstruc 
tion  of  Louisiana  should  not  be  adopted  by  the 
House.  I  have  therefore  to  say  for  myself,  that  I 
was  in  error  as  to  what  this  House,  representing  the 
country,  was  prepared  to  do ;  and,  without  submit 
ting  to  the  interruption  which  is  indicated  by  the 
gentleman  from  Kentucky  [Mr.  Hise] ,  I  congratulate 

37 


578  GOVERNMENT   OF  THE  BEBEL   STATES. 

the  House  and  the  country,  and  give  notice  to  that 
gentleman  and  to  all  those  of  the  border  States  who 
sympathize  with  him  in  opinion,  that  the  time  mani 
festly  has  passed  when  there  can  be  a  struggle  or  a 
question  whether  the  colored  people  of  the  South 
are  to  participate,  as  other  men  participate,  in  the 
government  of  the  country. 

Speaking  generally  of  the  bill  under  considera 
tion,  it  has  two  advantages  which  I  think  of  pri 
mary,  nay,  I  may  say  of  vital,  importance  to  the 
future  welfare  of  the  republic.  One  is  that  it  con 
tains  a  distinct  declaration  for  all  political  purposes, 
that  the  governments  which  have  been  set  up  in  the 
ten  States  recently  in  rebellion  are  mere  pretexts, 
pretended  governments,  having  no  vital  or  binding 
force  upon  the  people  of  the  respective  States,  and 
being  in  no  sense  entitled  to  the  recognition  of  the 
country. 

The  declaration  is  of  importance  to  the  future  of 
the  country,  considered  with  reference  to  its  effect 
upon  those  governments ;  but  it  is  of  more  impor 
tance  considered  with  reference  to  the  possible 
action  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 
If  it  be  true,  as  has  been  asserted  by  the  gentleman 
from  Ohio  [Mr.  Bingham],  that  on  former  occa 
sions,  and  especially  upon  the  re-enactment  of  the 
Freedmen's  Bureau  Bill,  Congress  did  virtually 
admit  that  those  ten  States  were  States  in  the 
Union,  then  the  reasons  for  the  passage  of  this  bill 
are  vastly  increased.  If  Congress  being  the  politi 
cal  department  of  the  government,  entitled  under 
the  Constitution  to  decide  what  form  of  government 
in  any  State  is  the  legal  government,  has  heretofore 


GOVERNMENT   OP   THE  REBEL   STATES.  579 

used  language  which  can  be  so  interpreted  properly 
as  to  support  these  pretended  State  governments  at 
the  South,  then  it  is  of  vital  necessity  that  that 
policy  should  be  reversed,  and  another  declaration 
made.  If  it  happen,  as  possibly  it  may,  that  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  shall  declare 
that  those  ten  States  are  States  in  the  Union,  entitled 
to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  States,  and  shall 
base  that  declaration  upon  any  act  of  Congress,  then 
those  States  are  restored,  as  far  as  the  judiciary 
can  restore  them,  and  nothing  remains  for  Congress, 
and  for  the  people,  but  to  accept  that  conclusion,  or 
else  to  enter  into  an  undesirable  and  dangerous 
controversy  with  the  chief  judicial  tribunal  of  the 
land. 

In  the  preamble  of  this  bill,  these  words  are 
found :  "  Whereas  the  pretended  State  governments 
of  the  late  so-called  Confederate  States,"  <fec.;  thus 
declaring  that  these  governments  are  merely  pre 
tended  State  governments.  While  the  preamble 
will  not  in  itself,  as  matter  of  law,  bind  the  legal 
tribunals  of  the  country,  the  text  of  the  bill  is 
connected  with  the  proposition  in  the  preamble  by 
the  use  of  such  language  as  that  there  can  be  no 
mistake  as  to  the  true  import  of  the  whole  con 
sidered  as  a  measure  of  legislation.  In  the  third 
section,  we  have  said, — 

"  And  all  legislative  or  judicial  proceedings  or  processes 
to  prevent  or  control  the  proceedings  of  said  military 
tribunals,  and  all  interference  by  said  pretended  State 
governments  with  the  exercise  of  military  authority  under 
this  act,  shall  be  void  and  of  no  effect." 


580  GOVERNMENT   OP   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

We  have  declared,  then,  in  the  preamble  and  in 
the  text  of  the  bill,  that  these  are  pretended,  not 
real  State  governments.  How  will  that  declaration 
made  by  Congress  affect  the  action  of  the  Supreme 
Court  ?  As  is  very  well  known,  in  the  case  of 
Luther  vs.  Borden,  the  Supreme  Court  held  that 
Congress  is  the  department  of  the  government 
that  is  to  decide,  in  case  of  two  governments  set 
up  in  a  State,  which  of  the  two  is  republican  in 
form.  They  also  decided  another  point  which  has 
not  yet  attracted  the  attention  of  the  country.  It 
was  held  in  general  terms,  that  it  is  in  the  power 
of  Congress  to  inspect  the  Constitution  of  a  State 
where  there  is  but  one  form  of  government,  and 
to  decide  whether  that  particular  Constitution  is 
republican  or  not.  The  court  illustrated  the  propo 
sition  by  saying,  that,  if  a  State  should  establish  a 
military  government,  it  would  be  in  the  power  of 
Congress  to  set  it  aside,  and  to  institute  proceed 
ings  for  the  organization  of  a  government  republi 
can  in  form. 

The  Supreme  Court,  looking  at  these  ten  States, 
before  they  can  discern  judicially  the  existence  of 
States  must  find  State  governments ;  and,  if  this 
bill  be  passed,  they  will  fail  entirely  to  find  any 
State  government  whatever.  They  must  also  fur 
ther  find  that  the  State  government  existing  in  any 
State  has  been  recognized  by  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  and  therefore  judicially  the  Supreme 
Court  will  have  no  capacity  to  see  in  either  of  these 
ten  States  any  existing  government ;  and  therefore 
for  judicial  purposes  there  is  no  State.  It  follows, 
then,  that  with  the  object  which  we  have  in  view, 


GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES.  581 

which  is  to  keep  in  our  own  hands,  as  the  political 
department  of  the  government,  the  re-organization 
of  these  ten  States,  this  bill,  in  its  present  form,  is 
of  vital  importance  to  the  future  welfare  of  the 
country.  It  retains  in  the  hands  of  Congress  and 
of  the  people  the  control  of  a  most  important  ques 
tion  ;  none  other  than  this :  whether  these  ten  States 
shall  be  admitted  into  the  Union  under  the  lead 
and  management  of  disloyal  men,  or  whether  they 
shall  be  admitted  under  the  lead,  and  by  the  direc 
tion  and  influence,  of  loyal  men.  This  is  the  ques 
tion  before  the  country. 

The  remark  has  been  made,  that  the  committee 
did  not  contemplate  any  thing  but  a  military  gov- 
ernnment  for  these  States.  This  statement  is  nega 
tived  by  the  concluding  clause  of  the  preamble, 
which  is  in  these  words  :  — 

"  And  whereas  it  is  necessary  that  peace  and  good  order 
should  be  enforced  in  said  so-called  States  until  loyal  and  re 
publican  State  governments  can  be  legally  established,"  &c. 

I  may  remark  here  that  the  gentleman  from  New 
York  [Mr.  Raymond]  admitted  that  life,  liberty, 
and  property  were  not  protected  in  these  ten 
States ;  and  it  follows,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that 
somebody,  for  the  time  being,  is  bound  to  furnish 
that  protection.  What  I  ask  the  House  to  accept  is 
the  fact  that  there  is  no  other  practicable  way  of 
furnishing  protection  to  life,  liberty,  and  property 
in  these  ten  States,  except  through  the  instrumen 
tality  of  a  bill  conferring  great  powers  upon  the 
military  department  of  the  government,  but  powers 
not  to  be  exercised  without  authority  of  law, 


582  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

powers  not  to  be  exercised  independently  of  Con 
gress,  but  to  be  exercised  precisely  as  the  police 
of  a  city  exercise  the  powers  confided  to  them. 
They  derive  their  authority  from  the  law,  and  they 
exercise  the  powers  intrusted  to  them  in  obedience 
to  principles  of  law.  They  are  always  responsible 
to  the  people  as  the  source  of  law.  The  military 
department  in  its  operations  in  these  ten  States, 
whether  considered  with  reference  to  the  people  of 
the  whole  country  or  considered  with  reference  to 
the  powers  that  they  exercise,  will  be  but  as  the 
police  of  a  city  acting  under  authority  of  law  and 
in  consonance  with  the  principles  of  law,  possessing 
vast  power,  exercising  great  authority,  but  always 
in  subjection  to  law.  The  moment  the  military 
authorities  depart  from  the  principles  of  law,  the 
moment  they  attempt  to  assume  or  assert  any  au 
thority  not  confided  to  them,  they  become  utterly 
powerless  in  the  presence  of  the  majesty  of  the  peo 
ple,  who  will  revoke  the  delegated  authority  with  the 
same  judgment  and  the  same  certainty  with  which 
they  conferred  it.  It  follows,  therefore,  that  fifty  or 
sixty  thousand  men  of  the  army  who  may  be  intrust 
ed  with  power  in  those  States  will  be,  with  reference 
to  the  people  of  those  States  and  of  the  country,  but 
as  the  police  of  a  city. 

I  pass  over  the  second  section  of  this  bill.  I 
believe,  that,  as  reported  by  the  committee,  it  is 
constitutional,  and  I  believe  also  that  the  amend 
ments  suggested  by  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylva 
nia  would  be  constitutional.  But  the  main  feature 
of  this  section,  whether  accepted  as  reported  by  the 
committee  or  amended  as  suggested  by  the  chair- 


GOVERNMENT  OP  THE  REBEL  STATES.  583 

man,  is  that  which  gives  to  the  general  of  the  army, 
subject,  of  course,  to  the  authority  vested  by  the 
Constitution  in  the  President  as  Commander-in-chief 
of  the  army,  authority  to  designate  five  officers  of 
the  rank  of  major-general  or  brigadier-general,  and 
appoint  them  severally  to  the  command  of  the  five 
districts  created  and  established  by  this  bill. 

In  passing,  I  venture  to  make  a  single  observa 
tion  for  the  purpose  of  relieving  gentlemen  upon 
the  point  suggested  by  my  friend  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Schenck],  that  it  was  not  competent  for  Congress 
to  detail  officers  of  the  army  by  rank.  I  do  not  at 
all  concur  in  that  idea,  if  by  "  detailing"  is  meant 
designating  certain  officers  by  name  or  by  rank,  and 
assigning  them  to  the  performance  of  specified  ser 
vices.  The  President  is  undoubtedly  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy ;  but,  by  a  provision 
of  the  Constitution,  Congress  has  power  to  make 
rules  for  the  regulation  and  government  of  the 
army  and  navy.  The  President  is  required  to 
command  the  army  in  subordination  to  the  rules 
and  regulations  which  Congress  may  prescribe. 
There  would  be  no  doubt  of  the  authority  of 
Congress  to  send  a  fleet  to  the  Indian  Ocean  for  the 
protection  of  American  commerce,  and  to  detail 
Admiral  Farragut  by  name,  and  assign  to  him  a 
certain  number  of  vessels  belonging  to  the  navy, 
and  direct  him  to  proceed  to  the  Indian  Ocean  for 
the  purpose  of  protecting  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States.  The  authority  of  the  President 
over  the  navy  is  precisely  the  same  as  is  his  author 
ity  over  the  army. 

Objection  is  made  to  another  provision  of  this 


584  GOVEENMENT  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

bill,  found  in  the  third  section,  which  authorizes  the 
military  officers  to  allow  local  civil  tribunals  to  take 
jurisdiction  of  and  to  try  offenders.  It  has  been 
suggested,  that  this  provision  is  equivalent  to  a 
recognition  of  the  State  governments  which  have 
been  set  up  in  those  States,  and  that,  in  some  way 
or  to  some  degree,  it  conflicts  with  the  provisions 
contained  in  the  preamble,  and  in  the  text  of  the 
last  paragraph  of  the  third  section  of  the  bill.  I 
think  that  this  provision  is  not  subject  justly  to  any 
such  interpretation.  We  establish  military  author 
ity  in  that  vast  district  of  country.  We  give  to 
our  military  officers  supreme,  but  not  necessarily 
exclusive,  jurisdiction  over  all  local  affairs ;  and  by 
this  provision  we  put  it  in  the  power  of  the  military 
officers  to  use  the  existing  legal  tribunals.  The 
officer  does  not  use  a  local  tribunal  because  it  was 
instituted  by  the  State,  and  derives  its  powers  from 
the  State ;  but  he  uses  it,  if  he  uses  it  at  all,  because 
he  finds  it  there,  because  he  finds  the  people 
acquainted  with  its  administration,  and  because  he 
can  make  it  useful  in  protecting  the  property,  the 
liberty,  and  the  lives  of  the  persons  within  his  juris 
diction.  But  no  authority,  no  valid  argument,  can 
be  deduced  from  this  provision,  in  favor  of  the  pre 
tended  State  governments  which  have  been  set  up. 
Our  action  in  this  case  will  be  analogous  with  the 
conduct  of  President  Lincoln  when  my  friend  and 
colleague  [Mr.  Banks]  was  in  command  in  Louisiana. 
I  remember  that  at  that  time  a  proclamation  was 
issued  by  the  President,  declaring  the  Constitution 
of  Louisiana,  except  those  parts  of  it  which  related 
to  slavery,  the  law  of  Louisiana  for  the  time  being. 


GOVERNMENT   OF  THE   REBEL   STATES.  585 

I  was  myself  slightly  disturbed  by  the  fear  that  the 
President  thereby  recognized  the  old  Constitution  as 
binding  upon  the  people  because  it  had  been  the 
Constitution  of  the  State :  but,  with  his  usual  clear 
ness,  the  President  made  the  distinction,  and  said, 
that  finding  the  Constitution  there,  and  finding  the 
people  familiar  with  it,  he  recognized  and  enforced 
it ;  but  not  because  it  had  any  vital  power  or  legal 
existence  arising  out  of  the  fact  that  it  had  been 
previously  the  Constitution  of  the  State. 

Mr.  BANKS.  — Will  my  colleague  allow  me  to  say, 
the  Constitution  of  Louisiana  was  recognized,  as  he 
has  suggested,  only  for  the  purpose  of  the  election, 
or  with  a  view  to  the  establishment,  of  a  government 
immediately  by  the  people,  and  not  as  a  semi-frame 
of  government  ?  It  was  recognized  for  a  special  pur 
pose. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Undoubtedly  it  was  for  a  special 
purpose.  I  did  not  introduce  the  subject  for  the 
purpose  of  saying  that  it  was  otherwise,  but  only 
to  show  that  it  was  competent  for  the  authorities  of 
the  United  States  to  use  the  institutions  and  frame 
work  of  government  found  in  the  rebellious  States 
and  thus  to  accomplish  what  is  desired,  whether  it 
be  the  protection  of  life,  liberty,  and  property,  or 
whether  it  be  the  reconstruction  of  the  government 
itself.  They  are  used,  not  because  they  have  been 
established  in  those  States  at  some  previous  time, 
but  because  they  are  convenient  instruments  for 
doing  what  we  desire  to  have  done.  They  derive 
their  power,  not  from  the  fact  that  they  have  been 
established  as  institutions  of  the  State  at  some  pre 
vious  time,  but  from  the  fact  that  we  endow  them 


586  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

with  life  for  certain  purposes,  whether  those  pur 
poses  be  temporary  or  permanent.  In  this  case,  as 
in  the  case  of  Louisiana,  we  propose  to  use  the 
existing  institutions  and  tribunals  for  certain  pur 
poses,  for  a  limited  period  of  time,  and  only  until 
another  system  can  be  introduced. 

Mr.  BANKS.  —  I  desire  to  say  a  word  further. 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE.  —  Will  the  gentleman  allow  me  to 
ask  him  a  question  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL. — I  will  first  yield  to  my  colleague. 

Mr.  BANKS.  —  There  is  one  other  distinction  to 
which  the  attention  of  my  colleague  ought  to  be 
called.  That  distinction  is,  that  the  Constitution  of 
Louisiana  which  was  recognized  was  in  the  hands 
of  loyal  men.  But  the  civil  governments  indirectly 
recognized  in  this  bill  are  in  the  hands  of  the  ene 
mies  of  this  country. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Yery  well ;  that  for  our  pur 
pose  is  a  distinction  of  no  consequence  whatever, 
for  the  reason  that  the  military  officers  having  con 
trol  over  these  tribunals  will  deprive  them  of  power 
from  time  to  time,  and  to  such  extent  as  may  be 
necessary  for  the  security  of  life  and  liberty  and 
property.  If  the  tribunals  referred  to  fail  to  such  a 
degree,  and  for  such  periods  of  time  as  to  render  it 
probable  that  they  cannot  be  used  as  instruments  of 
good  government,  then  they  will  be  thrust  aside  alto 
gether.  And  so  it  would  have  been  with  the  Con 
stitution  of  Louisiana,  if,  in  the  experiment  which 
was  tried,  it  had  failed  to  accomplish  that  which  the 
President  desired ;  to  wit,  to  aid  in  the  restoration 
of  civil  government  in  that  State.  Had  it  failed  to 
do  that,  the  President  would  not  have  hesitated  to 


GOVERNMENT   OP   THE   REBEL   STATES.  587 

put  the  hand  of  military  power  upon  that  Constitu 
tion  at  once. 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE.  —  If  the  gentleman  from  Massa 
chusetts  will  now  allow  me  a  moment,  I  will  say 
that  I  understand  the  gentleman  to  admit  that  the 
whole  government  of  these  people  will  be  under  the 
control  of  the  military  officer  who  may  be  in  com 
mand  of  the  district  or  department,  subject  alone  to 
his  supreme  will,  unless  he  shall  concede,  if  he 
shall  see  fit,  a  certain  amount  of  jurisdiction  to  the 
civil  officers.  Now,  I  would  inquire  of  the  gentle 
man,  in  the  first  place,  what  laws  these  military 
officers  are  to  administer,  —  whether  they  are  to  be 
the  laws  of  their  own  will,  which  they  are  to  admin 
ister  upon  their  own  impulse  and  discretion,  or 
whether  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the  State 
of  Louisiana.  Are  these  the  laws  that  they  are  to 
administer,  or  are  they  to  administer  martial  law 
alone  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  think  I  understand  what  the 
gentleman  desires  to  express.  I  may  say,  in  one 
word,  that  the  supreme  power  undoubtedly  will  be 
for  a  time  in  the  military  officers.  But  that  power 
is  limited  by  this  bill  in  various  ways,  and  by  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  I  will  under 
take  to  point  out. 

But,  before  entering  upon  that  branch  of  the  sub 
ject,  I  desire  to  refer  to  what  has  been  said  in  refer 
ence  to  the  suspension,  by  this  bill,  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus. 

Mr.  BANKS.  —  Let  me  say  just  one  more  word 
right  here. 


588  GOVERNMENT  OP  THE  REBEL   STATES. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Very  well. 

Mr.  BANKS.  —  I  wish  to  say  one  word  in  con 
firmation  of  what  my  colleague  has  said,  —  that  it 
was  the  distinct  understanding  of  the  military 
authorities  and  those  they  represented  in  the  expe 
riment  in  Louisiana,  that,  if  it  had  resulted  in 
placing  disloyal  men  in  office,  the  whole  affair 
would  have  been  immediately  suppressed. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  have  no  doubt  of  it.  As  I 
was  about  to  say,  there  is  not  in  the  terms  in  this  bill 
any  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  If  it 
be  true,  as  is  asserted  in  the  preamble  of  the  bill, 
that  these  are  pretended  State  governments,  and  not 
real  State  governments,  then  they  have  no  power 
whatever  over  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus. 

The  privilege  of  the  writ  is  a  privilege  which  can 
be  enjoyed  only  under  those  governments  which  are 
legitimate  and  recognized.  Therefore,  when  we  de 
clare  that  the  governments  in  these  ten  States  are 
pretended  governments  and  not  real  governments, 
then,  as  far  as  those  governments  are  concerned, 
they  neither  have  nor  can  have  any  power  over  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  any  form.  Hence  it  follows 
that  this  bill  is  broader  in  its  provisions  than  the 
mere  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  as  far 
as  the  tribunals  of  the  so-called  States  are  concerned. 
The  bill  not  only  suspends  their  functions  in  that 
particular,  but  it  suspends  by  its  power  all  their 
functions.  So  far  as  the  courts  of  the  United  States 
are  concerned,  there  is  no  suspension  of  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  but  only  a  regulation  of  the  mode  in 
which  the  privilege  of  the  writ  shall  be  enjoyed  by 


GOVERNMENT  OF  THE   REBEL   STATES.  589 

the  people.  With  reference  to  this  point,  the  amend 
ment  introduced  by  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Bingham]  seems  to  me  very  proper;  and  I  trust 
that  it  may  be  adopted. 

I  come  now  to  certain  provisions  of  the  bill,  which 
limit  the  authority  of  the  military  officers.  It  is 
declared,  first,  — 

"  That  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  each  officer  assigned  as 
aforesaid  to  protect  all  persons  in  their  rights  of  person 
and  property,  to  suppress  insurrection,  disorder,  and  vio 
lence,  and  to  punish,  or  cause  to  be  punished,  all  dis 
turbers  of  the  public  peace  and  criminals." 

Then  it  is  declared  in  the  fourth  section,  that  — 

"All  persons  put  under  military  arrest  by  virtue  of  this 
act  shall  be  tried  without  unnecessary  delay,  and  no  cruel 
or  unusual  punishment  shall  be  inflicted ; " 

using  in  this  respect  the  language  of  the  Consti 
tution. 

The  fifth  section  provides,  — 

"  That  no  sentence  of  any  military  commission  or  tribu 
nal  hereby  authorized,  affecting  the  life  or  liberty  of  any 
person,  shall  be  executed  until  it  is  approved  by  the  offi 
cer  in  command  of  the  district." 

Under  the  general  principles  of  law  and  practice, 
no  capital  punishment  can  be  inflicted  until  the 
sentence  shall  have  been  approved  first  by  the  mili 
tary  commander  of  the  district,  and  then  referred 
to  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  approved 
also  by  him.  Thus  we  impose  upon  the  officers 
those  obligations  which  are  imposed  upon  other 
departments  of  the  government  by  the  Constitution 


590  GOVERNMENT   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

of  the  United  States.  We  place,  then,  always  in  the 
presence  of  these  officers,  the  political  power  of  the 
government  to  arrest  their  proceedings  at  any  time, 
if  they  are  harsh,  unjust,  unwise,  or  oppressive  in 
any  degree. 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE.  —  I  desire  to  ask  the  gentleman 
whether  he  considers  that  this  bill  secures  to  a  per 
son  accused  of  a  capital  offence  the  right  of  trial  by 
a  jury  of  his  peers  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  It  does  not. 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE.  —  Is  it  not,  then,  in  direct  con 
flict  with  that  provision  of  the  Constitution  which 
declares  that  a  party  charged  with  crime  shall  be 
entitled  to  a  trial  by  jury,  to  be  confronted  with 
the  witnesses  against  him,  &c.  ? 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  Mr.  Speaker,  the  Constitution 
provides  that  "  the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  shall  not  be  suspended,  unless  when,  in  cases 
of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may  re 
quire  it."  Now,  sir,  there  is  a  distinction  which  can 
properly  be  made,  but  which,  as  far  as  I  have  ob 
served,  has  not  been  indicated  upon  this  floor.  It 
is  this :  that  the  power  of  Congress  to  suspend  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  not  confined  to  periods  of 
rebellion  or  invasion  ;  but  it  arises  when  there  is  a 
case  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  and  it  ceases  to  exist 
only  when,  in  the  judgment  of  the  law-making 
power,  the  occasion  has  passed.  Therefore  the  peo 
ple  of  these  ten  States  are  to-day,  not  only  without 
civil  governments,  —  that  has  been  declared  by  the 
executive  department,  and  it  is  also  affirmed  in  this 
bill,  —  but  they  are  also  in  that  condition,  even  if 
the  existing  governments  are  valid,  when  it  is  in  the 


GOVERNMENT   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.  591 

• 

power  of  Congress  to  suspend  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  for  the  reason  that  a  case  of  rebellion  exists. 
Although  war  is  no  longer  flagrant  in  that  part  of 
the  country,  it  still  is  true,  as  is  confessed  by  gentle 
men  on  all  sides,  that,  as  an  effect  and  consequence 
and  incident  of  the  rebellion,  there  is  n'o  real  protec 
tion  to  life,  person,  or  property.  There  was  a  case 
of  rebellion,  and  the  consequences  remain. 

Therefore  the  case  of  rebellion  having  arisen,  the 
consequences,  incidents,  and  facts  of  that  case  yet 
continuing,  the  power  of  the  government  over  the 
people  of  these  vast  regions  of  country,  aside  from 
the  rights  of  conquest,  is  as  supreme  and  exclu 
sive  as  it  was  over  the  sections  of  country  sub 
jugated  by  the  arms  of  the  republic,  during  the 
time  while  the  rebellion  was  flagrant  in  other  quar 
ters. 

Mr.  RAYMOND.  —  If  it  does  not  interrupt  the  gen 
tleman  from  Massachusetts, —  and  I  understand  it 
does  not,  —  I  desire  to  ask  him  a  question  on  one 
point  which  seems  to  me  a  point  of  distinction  in 
that  matter.  The  gentleman  maintains,  inasmuch 
as  the  invasion,  the  rebellion,  the  endangerment  of 
the  public  safety  continued,  therefore  the  suspension 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  continued. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  The  power  to  suspend  the  priv 
ilege  of  the  writ  continues. 

Mr.  RAYMOND.  —  But  as  I  understand  it,  by  proc 
lamation  duly  authorized  by  law,  that  state  of 
rebellion  has  been  legally  ended,  and  therefore  this 
is  a  new  exercise  of  power.  It  is  not  the  continu 
ance  of  a  previous  exercise  of  power ;  but  a  new 
state  of  things  having  arisen,  the  war  having  been 


592  GOYERNMENT  OF  THE  REBEL  STATES. 

I 

ended,  and  proclaimed  ended,  in  accordance  with  law, 
this  is  a  new  exercise  of  that  power. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  The  proclamation  of  the  Presi 
dent  had  no  other  effect,  as  I  understand,  than  to 
declare  that  flagrant  war  was  at  an  end ;  but  no 
proclamation  of  the  President,  whatever  may  be 
the  terms  in  which  it  is  couched,  can  ever  deprive  the 
legislative  department  of  its  constitutional  authority 
to  decide  for  itself,  in  the  case  of  rebellion,  that  the 
privileges  of  the  rebels  shall  be  suspended.  The 
President  cannot  deprive  the  legislative  department 
of  the  government  of  the  power  of  deciding  for  itself 
when  the  case  of  rebellion  exists,  and  when  the  effects 
and  consequences  of  that  rebellion  terminate.  The 
power  is  here,  and  no  paper  proclamation  of  the 
President  can  ever  divest  us  of  it. 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE  rose. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  fear  all  my  time  will  be  con 
sumed  with  these  interruptions.  I  will  yield  to  the 
gentleman  from  Wisconsin,  and  then  decline  to 
yield  to  all  others. 

Mr.  ELDRIDGE.  —  I  understand  the  gentleman  to 
claim  the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
itself  justifies  the  holding  of  the  person  charged 
with  crime,  and  the  depriving  him  of  an  immediate 
trial.  I  do  not  understand  that  the  suspension  of 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  has  any  such  effect ;  but, 
on  the  contrary,  I  hold  the  provisions  of  the  Consti 
tution  still  apply,  that  he  is  entitled  to  be  tried 
speedily  by  an  impartial  jury,  and  be  confronted 
with  the  witnesses  against  him,  and  to  have  the 
assistance  of  counsel  for  his  defence. 

Mr.  BOUTWELL.  —  I  have  only  to  say  that  in  my 


GOVERNMENT   OP   THE   REBEL   STATES.  593 

view,  so  far  as  these  ten  States  are  concerned,  when 
the  exigency  exists,  it  is  competent  for  Congress  to 
declare  that  they  shall  be  governed  by  martial  law  ; 
to  declare  that  pretended  State  governments  have 
no  power  to  grant  writs  of  habeas  corpus,  or  do  any 
other  act  of  government,  except  as  they  derive  it  from 
military  authority.  The  military  government  for  the 
time  being  will  be  supreme,  but  not  necessarily  ex 
clusive,  because  these  military  officers  may,  as  pro 
vided  in  this  bill,  grant  to  the  local  tribunals  an 
opportunity  to  dispose  of  questions  as  they  may  arise 
among  the  people. 

Mr.  Speaker,  passing  from  the  provisions  of  the 
bill,  I  wish  to  call  the  attention  of  the  House  to 
the  amendment  offered  by  the  gentleman  from  Ohio 
[Mr.  Bingham]  and  the  amendment  offered  by  the 
gentleman  from  Maine  [Mr.  Elaine],  which  are 
similar  in  character.  I  observe  that  these  amend 
ments  are  supported  by  a  number  of  gentlemen  on 
this  side  of  the  House.  Without  examining  into  the 
details  of  the  amendments,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say, 
that  any  general  proposition  for  the  restoration  of 
these  States  to  the  Union  upon  any  basis  set  forth 
in  general  terms  in  an  act  of  Congress  is  fraught 
with  the  greatest  danger  to  the  future  peace  and 
prosperity  of  the  republic. 

The  reason  is  apparent:  yesterday  we  passed  a 
bill  providing  for  the  admission  of  Louisiana  to  the 
Union.  I  will  refer  now  to  the  provisions  of  that 
bill  for  the  purpose  of  deducing  therefrom  an  argu 
ment  against  the  amendments  proposed  by  the  gen 
tleman  from  Maine  and  the  gentleman  from  Ohio. 

In  that  bill  we  have  taken  the  greatest  care  to 


594  GOVERNMENT   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

secure  a  loyal  governor  for  Louisiana  while  the  pro 
cess  of  reconstruction  is  going  on.  We  have  taken 
the  utmost  security  that  the  legislative  council  shall 
be  composed  of  loyal  men,  that  no  person  shall  be 
elected  a  delegate  to  the  constitutional  convention 
or  to  the  legislature  who  has  had  any  thing  what 
ever  to  do  with  the  rebellion. 

And  for  what  purpose  have  we  taken  all  these 
securities  ?  For  this  purpose  alone,  as  I  apprehend, 
that  we  may  present  loyal  men  as  the  principal 
figures  in  the  reconstruction  of  Louisiana.  We 
clothe  loyal  persons  with  authority,  so  that  the  peo 
ple  of  Louisiana,  loyal  and  rebel,  may  see  that  all 
power  in  the  new  State,  under  the  policy  of  Con 
gress,  is  given  to  loyal  men,  and  also  that  disloyal 
men  are  carefully  excluded.  I  need  not  dwell  upon 
the  well-known  and  potent  fact,  that,  when  you  create 
a  State,  when  you  give  power  to  a  governor,  when 
you  appoint  a  legislative  council,  when  you  select 
judges,  it  is  of  the  first  importance  that  they  be 
loyal  men,  if  you  desire  to  construct  a  loyal  State. 

How  will  it  be  under  the  amendment  proposed  by 
the  gentleman  from  Ohio  ?  He  lays  down  a  general 
rule  under  which  each  of  these  nine  States  is  per 
mitted  to  reconstruct  itself,  and  obtain  admission 
into  the  Union.  What  is  to  be  the  effect  of  this 
measure  ?  The  legislative  departments  of  those  nine 
States  are  all  now  in  the  hands  of  disloyal  men. 
Every  governor,  every  judge,  is  a  disloyal  man.  The 
majority  in  each  of  the  legislative  assemblies  is  com 
posed  of  disloyal  men.  When  it  is  ascertained,  as 
it  will  be  ascertained  if  the  amendment  of  the  gen 
tleman  from  Ohio  prevail,  that  certain  things  are  to 


GOVERNMENT   OP   THE   REBEL   STATES.  595 

be  done  in  order  to  secure  admission  into  Congress, 
what  happens  ?  The  disloyal  authorities  proceed  at 
once  to  do  that  which  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  says 
they  must  do  before  they  are  admitted  into  Con 
gress.  Disloyal  men  in  these  States  become  the 
central  figures  in  the  government.  They  become 
the  source  of  power. 

The  effect  of  this  will  be  that  these  nine  States 
will  appear  here  with  their  constitutions  framed  as 
you  demand,  the  constitutional  amendment  adopted, 
and  negro  suffrage  provided  for,  but  every  officer 
elected  or  appointed  will  be  a  disloyal  man.  Am  I 
told  that  the  pending  amendment  to  the  Constitu 
tion  excludes  certain  persons  ?  To  be  sure  it  does ; 
but  the  number  excluded  is  very  small  in  proportion 
to  the  whole  number  of  disloyal  people  in  those 
States.  Nothing  remains  except  for  the  disloyal  to 
select  those  who  are  also  disloyal,  but  who  will  not 
come  under  the  ban  of  the  constitutional  amend 
ment.  The  consequence  is,  that  the  timid,  whether 
black  or  white,  who  adhere  to  authority,  who  natu 
rally  place  confidence  in  those  who  possess  power, 
will  be  the  sport  of  disloyal  men.  Thus  you  permit 
disloyal  men  to  set  up  and  control  the  governments 
which  are  to  be  formed  in  these  ten  States.  There 
fore  I  protest  with  all  the  power  I  can  command 
against  any  general  proposition  for  the  admission  of 
the  States  into  the  Union  ;  and,  in  that  protest,  I  do 
not  mean  to  be  understood  as  entertaining  the  opin 
ion  that  these  States  ought  not  to  be  restored  as 
speedily  as  possible.  But  I  assert  and  maintain  that 
either  the  bill  which  passed  yesterday  should  be 
passed  for  these  several  States  as  they  may  appear 


596  GOVERNMENT   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

qualified  to  take  their  places  in  the  Union,  or  one 
somewhat  like  that  proposed  by  my  colleague  [Mr. 
Banks].  Consider  the  States  separately,  and  pro 
vide  that  the  men  who  are  intrusted  with  the 
organization  shall  be  loyal  men  ;  secure  a  loyal  gov 
ernment,  loyal  judges,  loyal  legislatures,  a  loyal  con 
vention  for  framing  the  State  constitutions,  and 
thereby  you  secure  loyalty  among  the  people  of  each 
of  the  new  States.  If  you  allow  power  to  pass  into 
the  hands  of  the  disloyal  people  of  the  South,  they 
will  without  doubt  reconstruct  governments  as  you 
demand.  They  possess  all  the  means  of  informa 
tion  ;  they  command  in  a  large  degree  the  intellect 
of  the  South  ;  they  control  the  institutions  of  learn 
ing  ;  the  clergy  is  in  their  interest.  Having  already 
the  chief  means  of  influence  and  power,  if  in  addi 
tion  we  allow  them  the  offices  in  the  incipient  States, 
they  will  rally  to  their  support  enough  of  the  people 
to  control  the  States  for  a  long  period  of  time. 
Therefore  I  am  of  the  opinion  that,  if  we  were  to 
pass  bills  to-morrow  for  the  reconstruction  of  every 
one  of  these  States,  the  bills  should  be  separate ; 
they  should  be  framed  like  the  bill  passed  yesterday 
in  relation  to  Louisiana,  that  thereby  we  may  have 
the  influence  of  the  military  officers  in  support  of  the 
new  State  governments  we  desire  to  establish. 

I  hold  further  that  we  are  driven  to  this  extreme 
measure,  because  the  policy  of  the  President  has 
failed,  for  some  reason  or  other,  to  secure  to  the 
people  of  the  South  protection  of  life,  liberty,  or 
property.  I  have  in  my  desk  a  statement  in  detail, 
which  I  suppose,  and  have  reason  to  believe,  is  very 
imperfect,  but  which  contains  the  names  of  forty 


GOVERNMENT   OP   THE  REBEL   STATES.  597 

persons  murdered  in  Arkansas  within  a  compara 
tively  brief  period  of  time.  Although  many  of  the 
murderers  are  known,  not  one  of  them  has  been 
brought  to  justice,  or  even  arraigned  before  any 
tribunal. 

There  are  now,  as  far  as  I  understand,  but  four 
methods  which  can  be  resorted  to  for  reconstruct 
ing  the  governments  of  the  rebel  States.  The  first 
mode  is  to  admit  all  the  Southern  States  upon  the 
plan  suggested  by  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Bingham] .  I  have  already  indicated,  as  clearly  as 
I  am  able,  the  objections  to  that  plan.  I  consider  it 
nothing  more  and  nothing  less  than  a  proposition  to 
put  all  those  State  governments  into  the  hands  of 
the  rebels.  Therefore  I  am  opposed,  as  strenuously 
as  I  can  be  opposed  to  any  thing,  to  the  passage  of 
that  measure. 

The  second  plan  is  to  leave  the  rebel  States  as 
they  now  are.  Are  gentlemen  prepared  to  do  that  ? 
Are  they  prepared  to  continue  this  grand  carnival  of 
disquiet,  disorder,  bloodshed,  and  murder  through 
out  the  South  ?  We  shall  be  false  to  our  duty,  if 
we  permit  the  existing  condition  of  things  to  con 
tinue  one  day  beyond  the  time  when  we  can  relieve 
ourselves  from  the  circumstances  in  which  we  are 
placed. 

The  third  plan  is  to  follow  the  example  set  in  the 
case  of  Louisiana  by  the  bill  which  we  passed  yes 
terday.  We  may  follow  that  example  as  speedily 
as  possible,  even  though  we  pass  the  bill  now  before 
the  House.  The  bill  for  a  military  government  over 
the  rebel  States  does  not  interfere  at  all  with  the 
reconstruction  of  North  Carolina  or  Arkansas,  or 


598  GOVERNMENT   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

any  other  State,  should  Congress  deem  either  in  a  fit 
condition  to  be  received  into  the  Union  of  States. 

But  in  the  mean  time,  as  I  believe,  it  is  necessary 
to  establish  some  sort  of  government  which  shall 
protect  the  people  in  their  rights  ;  and  I  know  of  no 
means  whatever,  except  to  employ  the  military  forces 
for  that  purpose.  I  do  not  participate  at  all  in  the 
apprehension  that  the  military  will  in  any  degree 
deviate  from  the  strict  line  of  their  duty.  I  do  not 
apprehend  that  they  will  oppress  any  man,  or  that 
they  will  do  any  thing  from  malice,  or  for  any  unjust 
purpose.  I  believe  that  temporarily  they  will  be  safe 
depositaries  of  the  public  power,  and  that  we  can  at 
least  do  that  which  thus  far  the  government  has 
failed  to  do  since  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion, 
protect  our  friends  against  the  injustice  and  wrongs 
under  which  they  have  suffered  for  now  more  than 
two  years,  and  under  which  they  are  writhing  in  the 
very  agony  of  death. 


REMARKS  UPON  THE  AMENDMENTS  OF  THE  SENATE  TO  THE  BILL 
TO  PROVIDE  FOR  THE  MORE  EFFICIENT  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE 
INSURRECTIONARY  STATES,  FEB.  18,  1867.* 

I  AM  aware  that  the  provisions  of  this  bill  have 
already  been  discussed  very  thoroughly  by  the 
House,  and  I  have  had  my  full  share  of  the  oppor 
tunity  for  discussion.  If  I  did  not  believe  that  the 
bill,  in  the  form  in  which  it  now  comes  to  us  from 
the  Senate,  was  fraught  with  great  and  permanent 
danger  to  the  country,  I  would  not  attempt  to  resist 
further  its  passage. 

*  See  Appendix  IV. 


GOVERNMENT  OF  THE   REBEL   STATES.  599 

I  ask  the  House  to  consider  the  position  in  which 
we  are  placed  at  the  present  time.  In  proceeding, 
I  make  a  remark  which  seems  to  be  necessary,  but 
I  do  not  make  it  for  any  party  purpose ;  yet  I  can 
not  reach  the  object  I  have  in  view  without  stating 
a  fact  of  a  party  nature.  That  fact  is,  that  the 
majority  here,  representing  the  majority  of  the  loyal 
people  of  the  country,  has  the  control  of  the  gov 
ernment  for  a  period  of  two  years  or  more.  We 
have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  government 
will  be  continued  in  the  hands  of  loyal  men. 

In  any  event,  in  these  two  years  we  ought  to  be 
able,  and  I  am  sure  we  shall  be  able,  to  reconstruct 
the  government  upon  a  loyal  basis.  But,  in  any 
event,  nothing  worse  can  happen  to  us,  and  noth 
ing  worse  can  happen  to  the  country,  than  the 
reconstruction  of  the  government  on  a  disloyal 
basis.  If  it  is  to  be  reconstructed  upon  a  disloyal 
basis,  there  are  two  things  which  I  seek :  first,  that 
we  who  believe  ourselves  to  be  loyal  to  the  govern 
ment  and  to  the  country  shall  not  in  any  degree 
be  responsible  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  rebel 
States  in  the  hands  of  disloyal  men ;  and,  secondly, 
that,  if  it  is  to  be  the  fortune  of  the  country  that 
it  shall  be  reconstructed  upon  a  disloyal  basis  and 
by  the  agency  and  under  the  control  of  disloyal 
men,  then  I  desire  to  postpone  that  calamity  to  the 
latest  day  possible. 

There  can  be  no  doubt,  however,  that  during 
this  session,  or  during  the  existence  of  the  Fortieth 
Congress,  if  the  majority  acts  according  to  its  means 
and  its  opportunities,  it  cannot  fail  to  secure  the 
reconstruction  of  these  ten  States,  and  their  restora- 


600  GOVERNMENT   OF  THE   REBEL   STATES. 

tion  to  the  Union,  through  the  agency  of  loyal  men 
and  by  loyal  means. 

My  objection  to  the  proposed  substitute  of  the 
Senate  is  fundamental ;  it  is  conclusive.  That  sub 
stitute  provides,  if  not  in  terms,  at  least  in  fact, 
by  the  measures  which  it  proposes,  for  the  recon 
struction  of  the  State  governments  at  once,  through 
the  agency  of  disloyal  men.  That  great  fact,  which, 
if  this  substitute  shall  be  concurred  in,  will  be  near 
to  us,  ought  to  restrain  us  from  any  action  in  favor 
of  this  measure,  though  we  be  compelled  to  separate, 
on  the  4th  of  March  next,  without  having  done  any 
thing  whatever  for  the  restoration  of  the  rebel 
States. 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  people  of  this  country 
are  prepared  to  accept  a  measure  of  restoration 
which  looks  to  the  re-introduction  of  disloyal  men, 
first,  into  the  governments  of  the  ten  States,  and 
then  into  the  government  of  the  country.  If  that 
be  their  feeling,  it  is  our  duty  to  resist  the  recon 
struction  of  these  ten  States  through  any  such 
agency,  or  with  any  such  certain  result  near  at 
hand. 

I  pass  over  the  provisions  in  the  second  section 
of  the  substitute,  by  which  all  power  is  put  into 
the  hands  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
with  the  remark  that  the  House  bill  gave  author 
ity  to  the  general  of  the  army,  of  which  by  the 
amendment  he  is  deprived.  The  Civil-Rights  Act, 
if  it  be  enforced  by  the  President  according  to  it- 
terms  and  its  intention,  he  being  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army,  is  sufficient  for  the  protec 
tion  of  liberty,  of  persons,  of  rights,  and  of  life 


GOVERNMENT   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.  601 

throughout  these  ten  States.  And,  if  that  be  so, 
the  necessity  for  the  passage  of  a  military  bill, 
with  power  in  the  hands  of  the  general  of  the 
army,  for  the  government  of  the  Southern  States, 
arises  from  the  fact  that  the  President  thus  far  has 
failed  to  exercise  the  power  conferred  on  him  by 
the  Civil-Rights  Act.  By  this  remark,  I  do  not 
say  whether  he  is  guilty  or  not  of  any  neglect  of 
duty.  But  he  has  not  used  the  power  which  the 
laws  of  the  country  have  placed  in  his  hands  for 
the  protection  of  the  loyal  people  of  the  ten  States 
recently  in  rebellion.  Until  you  have  some  assur- 
rance  that  the  vast  powers  which  he  already  pos 
sesses  are  to  be  exercised  in  behalf  of  loyalty  and 
justice  and  life,  will  you  clothe  him  anew,  will  you 
give  him  additional  power,  will  you  concede  to  him 
entire  and  unrestricted  control  of  the  army,  when 
he  now  has  means  to  do  that  which  we  desire  to 
have  done,  if  he  did  not  for  some  purpose,  or  under 
some  influence,  neglect  to  exercise  the  authority 
which  he  already  possesses? 

I  come  now  to  that  provision  of  the  proposed 
substitute  which  is  even  of  graver  import :  I  refer 
to  the  provision  found  in  the  fourth  section,  wherein 
we  give  up  to  the  present  leaders  of  the  South  the 
business  of  re-organizing  the  State  governments. 
Under  the  substitute,  no  one  man,  from  Jefferson 
Davis,  if  he  be  released  from  Fortress  Monroe, 
down  to  the  humblest  soldier  that  trained  in  the 
armies  of  the  rebellion,  or  practised  the  nefarious 
business  of  a  guerilla,  is  deprived  of  the  right  of 
suffrage. 

The  fifth  section  of  this  bill  proposes,  in  effect, 


602  GOVERNMENT   OF   THE  REBEL   STATES. 

if  not  in  terms,  universal  amnesty  and  the  restora 
tion  to  political  power,  as  far  as  the  franchise  is 
concerned,  of  every  man  in  the  ten  States.  The 
pending  constitutional  amendment  deprives  certain 
persons  of  the  right  to  hold  office ;  but  the  power 
of  this  government  anid  the  power  of  the  States  is 
not  in  the  right  of  individuals  to  hold  office,  but 
it  is  in  the  immensely  superior  power  of  the  people 
to  elect  to  office,  and  in  the  assurance  that  those 
elected  to  office  will  represent  the  men  by  whom 
they  are  elected.  By  the  bill  as  now  amended,  you 
transfer  the  re-organization  of  these  ten  States  to 
the  rebels ;  you  give  to  rebels  the  chief  places  in 
the  work  of  reconstruction,  possessing,  as  they  do 
for  the  time  being,  the  means  of  influence,  of  trust, 
of  power ; %  and,  submitting  all  authority  to  them, 
you  expect  them  to  reconstruct  loyal  State  govern 
ments. 

Now  is  the  time  when  we  ought  to  cherish  and 
nourish  the  loyal  sentiment  of  the  people.  We 
ought  to  take  security  that  the  men  under  whose 
guidance  these  States  are  to  be  reconstructed  shall 
be  loyal  men.  We  ought  to  exclude  from  the  busi 
ness  of  reconstructing  South  Carolina,  for  example, 
the  Orrs,  the  Pickens,  the  Magraths,  and  all  those 
who  participated  in  the  rebellion.  We  ought  to 
seek  out  the  loyal  men,  and  confide  to  them  the 
great  work.  Let  them  be  the  standard-bearers  of 
the  republic ;  let  them  rally  the  loyal  people,  black  • 
and  white,  to  the  support  of  the  Union.  On  the 
other  hand,  this  bill  leaves  the  whole  matter  of 
reconstruction  open  to  anybody  and  everybody  in 
the  Southern  country  who  may  choose  to  engage 


GOVERNMENT   OF   THE   REBEL   STATES.  603 

in  the  business.  The  result  will  be,  that,  in  these 
several  States,  the  ancient  rebel  party  will  resist 
reconstruction  for  a  time  ;  but,  when  in  a  particular 
State  they  see  that  it  is  inevitable,  they  will  take  the 
business  into  their  own  hands,  and  reconstruct  gov 
ernments  according  to  their  own  ideas,  with  their 
representative  men  in  places  of  power  and  trust. 
They  will  then  come  here  with  every  condition  pre 
cedent  fully  satisfied.  Every  black  man  will  be 
secured  in  the  right  to  vote.  The  controlling  rebel 
party  will  organize  the  States,  soon  or  late,  in  their 
own  interest.  They  will  organize  the  militia  ;  they 
will  control  the  polls;  they. will  manage  the  elec 
tions  ;  and  do  you  expect  that  the  negroes,  unaccus 
tomed  to  political  struggles,  timid,  careworn,  broken 
down  in  spirit  to  some  degree  by  the  institution  of 
slavery,  can  in  five  or  even  ten  years  overthrow  the 
rebels,  and  deprive  them  of  power,  although  the  ne 
groes  and  the  loyal  whites  should  be  a  majority  in 
those  States  ? 

Hence,  by  this  bill  in  its  present  form,  we  ex 
change  power  to  reconstruct  these  governments  in 
the  interest  of  loyalty,  and  accept  in  its  place  mere 
declarations  upon  paper ;  we  exchange  authority  for 
promises ;  we  neglect  to  do  our  own  duty  in  the 
work  of  reconstruction,  in  the  vain  hope  that  men 
who  have  been  rebels  will  do,  in  the  interest  of 
loyalty  and  the  government,  that  which  we  ourselves, 
intrusted  with  vast  powers  for  the  public  good,  are 
either  afraid  to  do  or  are  incapable  of  doing. 

These,  in  brief,  are  my  objections  to  the  passage 
of  the  substitute.  So  great, .so  enormous,  do  the 
objections  appear,  that  by  no  process  of  reasoning 


604  GOVERNMENT   OP   THE   REBEL   STATES. 

can  I  overcome  them.  I  see  the  three  million 
newly  emancipated  slaves  of  the  South  surrendered 
over  again  to  the  control  of  their  former  masters, 
when  we  have  the  power,  by  following  in  some  form 
of  language  the  bill  which  we  passed  here  with 
reference  to  Louisiana,  to  reconstruct  these  States 
through  the  agency  of  loyal  men,  in  the  interest  of 
loyalty,  and  thus  make  this  government  compact 
and  firm  as  one  great  republican  State  with  many 
members,  in  which  everywhere  loyalty  shall  be  in 
the  ascendant,  and  treason  shall  be  odious. 


APPENDIX. 


Joint  Resolution  proposing  an  Amendment  to  the   Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States. 

Be  it  resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa 
tives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assem 
bled  (two-thirds  of  both  houses  concurring),  »That  the 
following  article  be  proposed  to  the  legislatures  of  the  sev 
eral  States  as  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  which,  when  ratified  by  three-fourths  of  said 
legislatures,  shall  be  valid  as  part  of  the  Constitution ; 
namely :  — 

ARTICLE  XIV. 

SECTION  1.  All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the 
United  States,  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are 
citizens  of  the  United  States  and  of  the  State  wherein 
they  reside.  No  State  shall  make  or  enforce  any  law 
which  shall  abridge  the  privileges  or  immunities  of  citizens 
of  the  United  States ;  nor  shall  any  State  deprive  any 
person  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of 
law,  nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the 
equal  protection  of  the  laws. 

SEC.  2.  Representatives  shall  be  apportioned  among  the 
several  States  according  to  their  respective  numbers, 

[605] 


606  APPENDIX. 

counting  the  whole  number  of  persons  in  each  State, 
excluding  Indians  not  taxed.  But  when  the  right  to  vote 
at  any  election  for  the  choice  of  electors  for  President  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  representatives  in 
Congress,  the  executive  and  judicial  officers  of  a  State,  or 
the  members  of  the  legislature  thereof,  is  denied  to  any  of 
the  male  inhabitants  of  such  State,  being  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  and  citizens  of  the  United  States,  or  in  any  way 
abridged,  except  for  participation  in  rebellion  or  other 
crime,  the  basis  of  representation  therein  shall  be  reduced 
in  the  proportion  which  the  number  of  such  male  citizens 
shall  bear  to  the  whole  number  of  male  citizens  twenty-one 
years  of  age  in  such  State. 

SEC.  3.  No  person  shall  be  a  senator  or  representative 
in  Congress,  or  elector  of  President  and  Vice-President, 
or  hold  any  office,  civil  or  military,  under  the  United 
States,  or  Bunder  any  State,  who  having  previously  taken 
an  oath  as  a  member  of  Congress,  or  as  an  officer  of  the 
United  States,  or  as  a  member  of  any  State  legislature,  or 
as  an  executive  or  judicial  officer  of  any  State,  to  support 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  shall  have  engaged 
in  insurrection  or  rebellion  against  the  same,  or  given  aid 
or  comfort  to  the  enemies  thereof.  But  Congress  may, 
by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  each  house,  remove  such 
disability. 

SEC.  4.  The  validity  of  the  public  debt  of  the  United 
States,  authorized  by  law,  including  debts  incurred  for 
payment  of  pensions  and  bounties  for  services  in  suppress 
ing  insurrection  or  rebellion,  shall  not  be  questioned.  But 
neither  the  United  States  nor  any  State  shall  assume  or 
pay  any  debt  or  obligation  incurred  in  aid  of  insurrection 
or  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  or  any  claim 
for  the  loss  or  emancipation  of  any  slave ;  but  all  such 
debts,  obligations,  and  claims  shall  be  held  illegal  and 
void. 


APPENDIX. 


607 


SEC.  5.  That  Congress  shall  have  power  to  enforce,  by 
appropriate  legislation,  the  provisions  of  this  article. 

SCHUYLER  COLFAX, 

Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 

LAFAYETTE   S.   FOSTER, 

President  of  the  Senate  pro  tempore. 
Attest: 

EDWARD  McPnERSON, 

Clerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives. 
J.  W  FORNEY, 

Secretary  of  the  Senate. 

Received  at  Department  of  State,  June  16,  1866. 


II. 

A  Bill  to  provide  for  the  more  Efficient   Government  of 
the  Insurrectionary  States. 

Whereas  the  pretended  State  governments  of  the  late 
so-called  Confederate  States  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Mississipppi,  Alabama,  Louisiana, 
Florida,  Texas,  and  Arkansas  were  set  up  without  the 
authority  of  Congress  and  without  the  sanction  of  the  peo 
ple;  and  whereas  said  pretended  governments  afford  no 
adequate  protection  for  life  or  property,  but  countenance 
and  encourage  lawlessness  and  crime ;  and  whereas  it  is 
necessary  that  peace  and  good  order  should  be  enforced  in 
said  so-called  States  until  loyal  and  republican  State  gov 
ernments  can  be  legally  established :  therefore  — 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled, 
That  said  so-called  States  shall  be  divided  into  military 
districts  and  made  subject  to  the  military  authority  of  the 
United  States  as  hereinafter  prescribed :  and  for  that  pur- 


608  APPENDIX. 

pose  Virginia  shall  constitute  the  first  district;  North 
Carolina  and  South  Carolina  the  second  district ;  Georgia, 
Alabama,  and  Florida  the  third  district ;  Mississippi  and 
Arkansas  the  fourth  district;  and  Louisiana  and  Texas 
the  fifth  district. 

SEC.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  general  of  the  army  to  assign  to  the  command 
of  each  of  said  districts*  an  officer  of  the  regular  army,  not 
below  the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  and  to  detail  a  suffi 
cient  military  force  to  enable  such  officer  to  perform  his 
duties  and  enforce  his  authority  within  the  district  to  which 
he  is  assigned. 

SEC.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  each  officer  assigned  as  aforesaid  to  protect  all  per 
sons  in  their  rights  of  person  and  property,  to  suppress 
insurrection,  disorder,  and  violence,  and  to  punish,  or  cause 
to  be  punished,  all  disturbers  of  the  public  peace  and 
criminals,  and  to  this  end  he  may  allow  civil  tribunals  to 
take  jurisdiction  of  and  to  try  offenders,  or,  when  in  his 
judgment  it  may  be  necessary  for  the  trial  of  offenders,  he 
shall  have  power  to  organize  military  commissions  or  tribu 
nals  for  that  purpose,  any  thing  in  the  Constitution  and  laws 
of  the  so-called  States  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding; 
and  all  legislative  or  judicial  proceedings,  or  processes  to 
prevent  or  control  the  proceedings  of  said  military  tribu 
nals,  and  all  interference  by  said  pretended  State  govern 
ments  with  the  exercise  of  military  authority  under  this 
act,  shall  be  void  and  of  no  effect. 

SEC.  4.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  courts  and  judi 
cial  officers  of  the  United  States  shall  not  issue  writs  of 
habeas  corpus  in  behalf  of  persons  in  military  custody, 
unless  some  commissioned  officer  on  duty  in  the  district 
wherein  the  person  is  detained  shall  indorse  upon  said 
petition  a  statement  certifying,  upon  honor,  that  he  has 
knowledge,  or  information,  as  to  the  cause  and  circum- 


APPENDIX.  609 

stances  of  the  alleged  detention,  and  that  he  believes  the 
same  to  be  wrongful ;  and  further,  that  he  believes  that 
the  indorsed  petition  is  preferred  in  good  faith,  and  in 
furtherance  of  justice,  and  not  to  hinder  or  delay  the 
punishment  of  crime.  All  persons  put  under  military 
arrest  by  virtue  of  this  act  shall  be  tried  without  un 
necessary  delay,  and  no  cruel  or  unusual  punishment  shall 
be  inflicted. 

SEC.  5.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  no  sentence  of 
any  military  commission  or  tribunal  hereby  authorized, 
affecting  the  life  or  liberty  of  any  person,  shall  be  exe 
cuted  until  it  is  approved  by  the  officer  in  command  of 
the  district,  and  the  laws  and  regulations  for  the  govern 
ment  of  the  army  shall  not  be  affected  by  this  act,  except 
in  so  far  as  they  conflict  with  its  provisions. 


III. 

An  Act  to  provide  for  the  more  Efficient  Government  of 
the  Insurrectionary  States. 

Whereas  the  pretended  State  governments  of  the  late 
so-called  Confederate  States  of  Virginia,  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Louisiana, 
Florida,  Texas,  and  Arkansas,  were  set  up  without  the 
authority  of  Congress,  and  without  the  sanction  of  the 
people;  and  whereas  said  pretended  governments  afford 
no  adequate  protection  for  life  or  property,  but  countenance 
and  encourage  lawlessness  and  crime;  and  whereas  it  is 
necessary  that  peace  and  good  order  should  be  enforced  in 
said  so-called  States,  until  loyal  and  republican  State  gov 
ernments  can  be  legally  established  :  therefore  — 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa 
tives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled, 

39 


610  APPENDIX. 

That  said  late  so-called  Confederate  States  shall  be  divided 
into  military  districts  and  made  subject  to  the  military  au 
thority  of  the  United  States,  as  hereinafter  prescribed,  and 
for  that  purpose  Virginia  shall  constitute  the  first  dis 
trict;  North  Carolina  and  South  Carolina  the  second 
district;  Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Florida  the  third  dis 
trict  ;  Mississippi  and  Arkansas  the  fourth  district ;  and 
Louisiana  and  Texas  the  fifth  district. 

SEC.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  general  of*  the  army  to  assign  to  the  command 
of  each  of  said  districts  an  officer  of  the  army,  not  below 
the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  and  to  detail  a  sufficient  mili 
tary  force  to  enable  such  officer  to  perform  his  duties  and 
enforce  his  authority  within  the  district  to  which  he  is 
assigned. 

SEC.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  each  officer  assigned  as  aforesaid  to  protect  all  per 
sons  in  their  rights  of  person  and  property,  to  suppress 
insurrection,  disorder,  and  violence,  and  to  punish,  or 
cause  to  be  punished,  all  disturbers  of  the  public  peace  and 
criminals,  and  to  this  end  he  may  allow  local  civil  tribu 
nals  to  take  jurisdiction  of  and  to  try  offenders,  or,  when 
in  his  judgment  it  may  be  necessary  for  the  trial  of 
offenders,  he  shall  have  power  to  organize  military  com 
missions  or  tribunals  for  that  purpose,  .any  thing  in  the 
Constitution  and  laws  of  any  of  the  so-called  Confederate 
States  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding;  and  all  legisla 
tive  or  judicial  proceedings  or  processes  to  prevent  or 
control  the  proceedings  of  said  military  tribunals,  and  all 
interference  by  said  pretended  State  governments  with  the 
exercise  of  military  authority  under  this  act,  shall  be  void 
and  of  no  effect. 

SEC.  4.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  courts  and 
judicial  officers  of  the  United  States  shall  not  issue  writs 
of  habeas  corpus  in  behalf  of  persons  in  military  custody, 


APPENDIX.  611 

except  in  cases  in  which  the  person  is  held  to  answer  only 
for  a  crime  or  crimes  exclusively  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  courts  of  the  United  States  within  said  military  dis 
tricts,  and  indictable  therein,  or  unless  some  commissioned 
officer  on  duty  in  the  district  wherein  the  person  is  detained 
shall  indorse  upon  said  petition  a  statement  certifying, 
upon  honor,  that  he  has  knowledge  or  information  as  to 
the  cause  and  circumstances  of  the  alleged  detention,  and 
that  he  believes  the  same  to  be  wrongful;  and,  further, 
that  he  believes  that  the  indorsed  petition  is  preferred  in 
good  faith  and  in  furtherance  of  justice,  and  not  to  hinder 
or  delay  the  punishment  of  crime.  All  persons  put  under 
military  arrest  by  virtue  of  this  act  shall  be  tried  without 
unnecessary  delay,  and  no  cruel  or  unusual  punishment 
shall  be  inflicted. 

SEC.  5.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  no  sentence  of 
any  military  commission  or  tribunal  hereby  authorized, 
affecting  the  life  or  liberty  of  any  person,  shall  be  executed 
until  it  is  approved  by  the  officer  in  command  of  the  district, 
and  the  laws  and  regulations  for  the  government  of  the 
army  shall  not  be  affected  by  this  act,  except  in  so  far  as 
they  conflict  with  its  provisions. 

Passed  the  House  of  Representatives,  February  13, 
1867. 

Attest:  EDWARD  McPHERSOX,    Clerk. 


IV. 

An  Act  to  provide  for  the  more  Efficient   Government  of 
the  Rebel  States. 

Whereas  no  legal  State  governments,  or  adequate  pro 
tection  for  life  or  property,  now  exist  in  the  rebel  States 
of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 


612  APPENDIX. 

Mississippi,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Florida,  Texas  and 
Arkansas ;  and 

Whereas  it  is  necessary  that  peace  and  good  order  should 
be  enforced  in  said  States  until  loyal  and  republican  State 
Governments  can  be  legally  established  :  therefore  — 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa 
tives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled, 
That  said  rebel  States  shall  be  divided  into  military  dis 
tricts,  and  made  subject  to  the  military  authority  of  the 
United  States,  as  hereinafter  prescribed,  and  for  that  pur 
pose  Virginia  shall  constitute  the  first  district ;  North 
Carolina  and  South  Carolina  the  second  district ;  Georgia, 
Alabama,  and  Florida  the  third  district ;  Mississippi  and 
Arkansas  the  fourth  district ;  and  Louisiana  and  Texas  the 
fifth  district. 

SKC.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  President  to  assign  to  the  command  of  each 
of  said  districts  an  officer  of  the  army  not  below  the 
rank  of  brigadier-general,  and  to  detail  a  sufficient  mili 
tary  force  to  enable  such  officer  to  perform  his  duties  and 
enforce  his  authority  within  the  district  to  which  he  is 
assigned. 

SEC.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  each  officer  assigned  as  aforesaid  to  protect  all 
persons  in  their  rights  of  person  and  property,  to  suppress 
insurrection,  disorder,  and  violence,  and  to  punish,  or  cause 
to  be  punished,  all  disturbers  of  the  public  peace  and 
criminals,  and  to  this  end  he  may  allow  local  civil  tribunals 
to  take  jurisdiction  of  and  try  offenders,  or,  when  in  his 
judgment  it  may  be  necessary  for  the  trial  of  offenders, 
he  shall  have  power  to  organize  military  commissions  or 
tribunals  for  that  purpose,  and  all  interference  under  color 
of  State  authority,  with  the  exercise  of  military  authority, 
under  this  act,  shall  be  null  and  void. 

SEC.  4.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  persons  put 


APPENDIX.  613 

under  military  arrest  by  virtue  of  this  act  shall  be  tried 
without  unnecessary  delay,  and  no  cruel  or  unusual  punish 
ment  shall  be  inflicted,  and  no  sentence  of  any  military 
commission  or  tribunal  hereby  authorized,  affecting  the 
life  or  liberty  of  any  person,  shall  be  executed  until  it  is 
approved  by  the  officer  in  command  of  the  district,  and  the 
laws  and  regulations  for  the  government  of  the  army  shall 
not  be  affected  by  this  act,  except  in  so  far  as  they  may 
conflict  with  its  provisions ;  Provided,  That  no  sentence  of 
death  under  this  act  shall  be  carried  into  effect  without  the 
approval  of  the  President. 

SEC.  5.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  when  the  peo 
ple  of  any  one  of  said  rebel  States  shall  have  formed  a 
Constitution  of  government  in  conformity  with  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  in  all  respects,  framed  by  a 
convention  of  delegates  elected  by  the  male  citizens  of 
said  State,  twenty-one  years  old  and  upward,  of  whatever 
race,  color,  or  previous  condition,  who  have  been  resident 
in  said  State  for  one  year  previous  to  the  day  of  such 
election,  except  such  as  may  be  disfranchised  for  participa 
tion  in  the  rebellion,  or  for  felony  at  common  law,  and 
when  such  Constitution  shall  provide  that  the  elective 
franchise  shall  be  enjoyed  by  all  such  persons  as  have  the 
qualifications  herein  stated  for  electors  of  delegates,  and 
when  such  Constitution  shall  be  ratified  by  a  majority  of 
the  persons  voting  on  the  question  of  ratification  who  are 
qualified  as  electors  for  delegates,  and  when  such  Constitu 
tion  shall  have  been  submitted  to  Congress  for  examination 
and  approval,  and  Congress  shall  have  approved  the  same, 
and  when  said  State,  by  a  vote  of  its  Legislature,  elected 
under  said  Constitution,  shall  have  adopted  the  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  proposed  by  the 
Thirty-ninth  Congress,  and  known  as  "Article  XIV.,"  and 
when  said  Article  shall  have  became  a  part  of  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States,  said  State  shall  be  declared 


614  APPENDIX. 

entitled  to  representation  in  Congress,  and  senators  and 
representatives  shall  be  admitted  therefrom  on  their  taking 
the  oath  prescribed  by  law,  and  then  and  thereafter  the 
preceding  sections  of  this  act  shall  be  inoperative  in 
said  State ; 

Provided,  That  no  person  excluded  from  the  privilege  of 
holding  office  by  said  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  eligible  to  election  as  a 
member  of  a  Convention  to  frame  a  Constitution  for  any  of 
said  rebel  States,  nor  shall  any  such  person  vote  for  members 
of  such  Convention. 

SEC.  6.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That,  until  the  peo 
ple  of  said  rebel  States  shall  by  law  be  admitted  to  represen 
tation  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  any  civil 
governments  which  may  exist  therein  shall  be  deemed  pro 
visional  only,  and  in  all  respects  subject  to  the  paramount 
authority  of  the  United  States,  at  any  time  to  abolish, 
modify,  control,  or  supersede  the  same.  And  in  all  elections 
for  officers  of  such  provisional  governments,  all  persons 
shall  be  entitled  to  vote,  and  none  others,  who  are  entitled  to 
vote  under  the  provisions  of  the  fifth  section  of  this  act ; 
and  no  person  shall  be  eligible  to  any  office  under  such 
provisional  governments  who  would  be  disqualified  from 
holding  office  under  the  provisions  of  the  third  section  of 
said  Constitutional  Amendment. 

NOTE. — Appendix  II.  is  the  bill  reported  by  the  Com 
mittee  on  Reconstruction.  Appendix  III.  is  the  bill  as  it  passed 
the  House  of  Representatives.  Appendix  IV.  is  the  bill  which 
became  a  law  on  the  2d  of  March,  1867,  over  the  veto  of 
the  President. 

The  House  bill  was  amended  by  the  Senate,  and,  on  the 
16th  of  February,  the  Senate  returned  the  amended  bill  to  the 
House. 

The  part  which  precedes  the  proviso  to  the  fifth  section 
is  the  Senate  bill.  On  the  19th  of  February,  the  House,  by  a 


APPENDIX.  615 

vote  of  98  to  73,  non-concurred  with  the  Senate.  On  the  same 
day,  the  Senate  voted  to  insist  upon  its  amendments.  On  the 
20th  of  February,  the  House  receded,  and  concurred,  with  two 
amendments,  which  are  printed  in  Italics.  The  Senate  then 
concurred  in  these  amendments.  The  proviso  to  the  fifth  sec 
tion  was  proposed  by  Hon.  James  F.  Wilson,  of  Iowa.  The 
sixth  section  was  proposed  by  Hon.  Samuel  Shellabarger,  of 
Ohio. 


INDEX. 


INDEX. 


ACQUISITION  of  territory,  20. 

Admission  of  new  States,  315. 

"Alabama,"  the  corsair,  558. 

Allies  of  traitors,  conduct  of  the, 
351. 

Altoona,  meeting  of  governors  at, 
334. 

American  colonies,  political  char 
acter  of  the,  17.  Power  of  Parlia 
ment  of  England  to  tax,  18. 

American  Revolution:  its  influ 
ence,  2. 

American  Union,  basis  of,  6.  Jef 
ferson's  ideas  of,  6. 

Anderson,  Major,  patriotism  of,  63. 

Annexation  of  Texas,  68. 

Antigua,  schools  in,  145. 

Appendix,  605. 

Arkansas,  policy  of  the  President 
in,  300. 

"Armistice,"  meaning  of,  350. 

Army,  rank  and  file,  fidelity  of,  96. 
Treason  of  Southern  officers  of 
the,  96.  Re-organization  of  the, 
196.  Of  the  Potomac,  206. 

Atlanta  and  Mobile  Bay,  battles  of, 
347. 

Attorneys,  test  oath  for,  562. 

BANKRUPTCY  of  the  South  an  in 
ducement  to  rebellion,  134. 

Banks,  General,  conduct  of,  in 
Louisiana,  303.  Government  es 
tablished  in  Louisiana  by,  384. 

Barbadoes,  schools  in,  145.' 

Elaine,  James  G.,  amendment  pro 
posed  by,  575. 

Blockade :  its  effect,  139. 

Brigham,  John  A.,  amendment  pro 
posed  by,  575. 

Bright,  John,  views  of,  in  reference 
to  voting,  522. 

British  West  Indies,  effects  of  eman 
cipation  on  the,  144.  Freeholders 


in,  145.  Effects  of  emancipation 
on  products  of,  146.  Misrepre 
sentations  concerning  the  negroes 
in  the,  325. 

Buchanan,  President,  traitors  in  the 
Cabinet  of,  63.  Inaugural  ad 
dress  of,  72.  Agency  of,  in  the 
attempt  to  destroy  the  govern 
ment,  80.  The  character  of  the 
Cabinet  of,  102. 

Burke,  Edmund,  opinion  of,  con 
cerning  slaveholders,  109. 

Burke,  Edmund,  511. 

Business:  its  relations  to  recon 
struction,  538. 

CALHOUN,  JOHN  C.:  his  contro 
versy  with  General  Jackson,  33. 
Influence  of  the  opinions  of,  33. 
Theory  of,  concerning  the  rights 
of  States,  79. 

Campaign,  plan  of  the,  214. 

Census,  effect  of,  upon  the  opinion 
of  the  South,  68.  Of  I860,  influ 
ence  of,  72. 

Charters,  colonial,  conflict  of,  47. 

Charleston,  Democratic  Convention 
at,  73. 

Chicago  Convention  of  1864,  347. 
Platform  of  the,  348.  Opposition 
of,  to  the  government,  350.  Con 
sequences  of  the  policy  recom 
mended  by  the,  352. 

Cincinnati  platform  of  1856  favor 
able  to  secession,  71. 

Civil  wars,  159. 

Clergv,  opinions  of  the  Southern, 
132: 

Coercion,  the  right  of  the  Federal 
Government  to  employ,  79. 

Colonial  charters,  conflict  of,  47. 

Colonization  by  free  States,  72. 

Colored  people,  capacity  of,  415. 

Commerce  of  the  South,  56. 

[619] 


620 


INDEX. 


"  Compact,"  meaning  of,  312. 

Compromises  proposed  in  1861,  77. 

Compromise  to  secure  the  inaugura 
tion  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  inexpediency 
of,  76. 

Compromise  and  concession,  88. 

Compromise  or  concession  impossi 
ble,  217. 

Concession  and  compromise,  88. 

Concession  or  compromise  impossi 
ble,  217. 

Confederacy,  the,  a  conspiracy,  130. 

Confederate  Government,  character 
of,  393. 

"  Confederate  States,"  encourage 
ment  of,  by  England,  512. 

Confiscation  of  rebel  property,  239. 
Method  of  proceeding,  242.  Jus 
tification  of,  243. 

Congress,  declaration  of  President 
Johnson  concerning,  504.  Pur 
poses  of,  507.  And  President, 
issue  between,  494,  500. 

Congress,  power  of,  in  the  Terri 
tories,  11.  Right  of,  to  legislate 
for  the  Territories,  21.  Policy  of 
the  South  in  reference  to  members 
of,  169.  Authority  of,  to  confis 
cate  property  of  rebels,  239.  Pow 
er  of,  over  the  rebellious  States, 
529.  Power  of,  over  the  rules  of 
the  Supreme  Court,  568.  Duty 
of,  in  relation  to  the  rebel  States, 
576.  Power  of,  over  writ  of  ha 
beas  corpus,  590. 

Connecticut,  charter  of,  46. 

Conspiracy  against  the  Govern 
ment,  62.  Extent  of  the,  64.  Its 
purposes  and  power,  94.  Extent 
of  the,  102.  Its  origin  and  influ 
ence,  130.  Second,  against  the 
Government,  496. 

Constitution,  the,  does  not  extend 
to  the  Territories,  12.  Recogni 
tion  of  slavery  by  the,  66.  Never 
satisfactory  to  the  slave  States, 
106.  Favorable  to  freedom,  106. 
Does  not  protect  men  in  arms 
against  the  Government,  119. 
Authority  of  the,  over  rebel 
States  unimpaired,  129.  The 
framers  of  the,  opposed  to  sla 
very,  165.  Ideas  of  the  framers 
of  the,  218.  Authority  of,  for 
confiscating  property  of  rebels, 
244.  Provision  of,  concerning 
attainder  of  treason,  246.  "  Cor 
ruption  of  blood,"  meaning  of, 
under  the,  251.  Object  of,  308. 


Defects  of  the,  375.  Influence  of 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia  in 
framing  the,  514. 

Constitutional  amendments,  474. 
Ratification  of,  by  Tennessee, 
478.  Value  of,  547. 

Constitutional  amendment,  605. 

Constitutions  of  rebel  States  not 
submitted  to  the  people,  530. 

"Continental  Monthly,"  article 
from,  159. 

Convention,  Democratic,  at  Charles 
ton,  73.  Of  1787  in  relation  to 
the  slave-trade,  37.  Chicago, 
platform  of  the,  348. 

"  Corruption  of  blood,"  meaning 
of,  under  the  Constitution,  251. 

Cotton,  producers  of,  49.  Effect  of 
cultivation  of,  66.  Crop  of,  how 
affected  by  the  dissolution  of  the 
Union,  83.  Decrease  in  the  sup 
ply  of,  150.  Total  annual  prod 
uct  of,  186.  Effects  of  the  short 
supply  of,  192. 

Cotton  product,  influence  of  the,  556. 

Courage  essential  to  party  success, 
179. 

Credit  of  the  United  States,  187. 

Currency  and  loan  bill,  448. 

Currency,  reduction  of  the  volume 
of  the,  453. 

DAVIS  and  Lee,  punishment  of, 
399. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  opinions  of,  con 
cerning  representation,  490. 
Trial  of,  498. 

Debt  of  the  United  States,  187. 
Means  for  paying  the,  233. 

Debt,  capacity  of  the  United  States 
to  pay  its,  282.  Danger  of  repu 
diating  the,  395. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  origi 
nal  draft  of,  5.  Against  the  King, 
and  not  against  Parliament,  19. 
Interpretation  of,  148. 

Delays  in  war,  expense  of,  195. 

Democrats,  influence  of  the  North 
ern,  in  promoting  the  rebellion, 
133.  Policy  of,  in  reference  to 
employing  negroes  in  the  army, 
227.  Consistency  of,  486. 

Democratic  Convention  at  Charles 
ton,  73. 

Democratic  party  of  1856,  71. 

Democratic  party,  destruction  of, 
73.  Courage  of,  179.  Policy  of 
the,  concerning  equality  of  rep 
resentation,  457. 


INDEX. 


621 


Discipline,  necessity  of,  in  war,  199. 

Disloyal  people  to  vote,  528. 

Dissolution  of  the  Union,  argument 
for  the,  50. 

District  of  Columbia,  rights  of  the 
people  in,  408.  Suffrage  in  the, 
427. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  popular  sov 
ereignty  maintained  by,  9.  Ef 
fects  of  his  theory  of  popular 
sovereignty,  13.  Errors  of,  con 
cerning  the  political  character  of 
the  American  Colonies,  19. 

Dred  Scott,  decision  of  Supreme 
Court  in  case  of,  11,  72. 

ECONOMY  in  war,  195. 

Education  and  voting,  connection 
between,  523. 

Education  as  a  qualification  for 
voting  considered,  418,  549. 

Elections  of  1866,  509. 

Elizabeth,  Statute  of  5th,  concern 
ing  treason,  249. 

Emancipation,  the  North  may  aid 
in,  86.  The  only  means  for  sup 
pressing  the  rebellion,  120.  Its 
justice  and  necessity,  123.  Rea 
sons  for,  139.  In  South  Carolina, 

140.  In  Texas,  141.     In  Florida, 

141.  Effects  of,  in  British  West 
Indies,  144.     Effects  of,  on  prod 
ucts  of  British  West  Indies,  146. 
In  United  States ;  ways  in  which 
it  may  take  place,  147.    Mr.  Jef 
ferson   in  favor  of,  in  Virginia, 
148.       The     only     security     for 
future    peace,    152.      Inevitable, 
153.     A  means  of  preserving  the 
country  from  a  foreign  war,  155. 
Benefits  the  white  as  well  as  the 
black    race,     176.      Preliminary 
proclamation  of,  183.     Proclama 
tion  of,  eft'ects  of,  upon  the  foreign 
relations  of   the  United   States, 
192.     A  military  necessity,  234. 
Its  influence  upon  the  laboring 
classes,   289.     A  necessity,  379. 
Proclamations    relating  to,   518. 

Emigration,  future  course  of,  150. 

Empire,  purpose  of  the  South  to 
construct  an,  74. 

Enfranchisement  of  negroes,  480. 

England,  course  of,  in  reference  to 
the  rebellion,  154.  Interest  of, 
in  promoting  the  rebellion,  155. 
Policy  of,  169.  Responsibility  of, 
for  the  rebellion,  188.  Hostility 
of,  to  the  United  States,  191. 


Course  of,  in  reference  to  the  re 
bellion,  221.  Injustice  of,  to 
Ireland,  512.  Future  of,  523, 
537. 

Equal  suffrage,  408. 

Equality,  right  to  vote,  not  evidence 
of,  416. 

Equality  before  the  law,  522. 

Europe,  jealousy  of,  towards  the 
United  States,  156. 

Evil  of  intemperance  in  an  army, 
199. 

Exchange:  its  influence  upon  the 
price  of  gold,  277. 

FAMILY,  the  unit  of  the  State,  410. 
"Federalist,"    the,    theory    of   the 

writers  in,  concerning  the  Union, 

80. 

Feudal  system,  18. 
Financial  condition  of  the  country, 

231. 
Florida,  conduct  of,  in  the  rebellion, 

99.     Emancipation  in,  141. 
Foreign  war,  danger  of,  194. 
Foreign  loan,  expediency  of,  280. 
Foreign  policy  of  the  United  States, 

558. 

Fort  Sumter,  defence  of,  64. 
France,  policy  of,  in  American  af 
fairs,  191. 
Franchise,  elective,  who  ma}'  enjoy 

the,  521.    Views  of  John  Bright 

concerning,  522. 
Freeholders  in  British  West  Indies, 

145. 
Free  States,  colonization  by  the,  72. 

Duty  of,  in  order  to  avert  war,  76. 

Duty  of,  to  organize  a  military 

force,  76. 
Fugitive-slave  law,  influence  of,  in 

favor  of  secession,  69. 

GENERAL-IN-CHIEF  of  the  army, 
necessity  of  the  office  of,  con 
sidered,  201. 

Georgia  favors  the  slave-trade,  37. 
Argument  of,  against  the  aboli 
tion  of  the  slave-trade,  39.  Con 
duct  of,  in  the  rebellion,  100. 

Gold,  sale  of,  264. 

Government,  right  of  every  man  to 
a  voice  in,  17.  The  right  of,  to 
acquire  territory,  23.  National, 
relation  of,  to  State  governments, 
79.  Agency  of  President  Bu 
chanan  in  the  attempt  to  destroy 
the,  80.  Its  authority  in  the  con 
duct  of  the  war,  201.  Power  of, 


622 


INDEX. 


to  suppress  the  rebellion,  216. 
Pledges  of  the,  to  be  kept,  271. 
Power  of  the,  over  the  rebellious 
States,  381.  Different  forms  of, 
for  the  rebel  States,  389.  Differ 
ent  kinds  of,  417.  Republican, 
stronger  and  wiser  than  any 
other,  419.  Who  may  partici 
pate  in,  622.  Of  rebel  States, 
675. 

Governments,  loyal,  organization 
of,  in  the  rebel  States,  115.  Na 
tional  and  State,  mutual  rela 
tions  of,  311.  Three  kinds  of 
injustice  in,  511.  In  rebel  States 
not  legal,  530. 

Governors'  meeting  at  Altoona,  334. 

Great  Britain,  inability  of,  to  en 
gage  in  war,  221.  Her  policy 
during  the  rebellion,  513. 

Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  trade  of  the, 
81. 

HABEAS  CORPUS,  power  of  the 
President  to  suspend  the  writ  of, 
236.  Suspension  of  the  writ  of, 
587.  Power  of  Congress  over 
writ  of,  590. 

Henry,  Patrick :  speech  in  the  House 
of  Burgesses,  7. 

Hungary,  injustice  of  Austria  to, 
612. 

IMPEACHMENT  of  President  John 
son,  531-534.  Effect  of,  535. 

Independence,  declaration  of, 
against  the  King,  and  not  against 
the  Parliament,  19.  Conduct  of 
our  Revolutionary  ancestors  on 
the  subject  of,  318. 

Indian  War  of  1675,  333. 

Injustice  in  governments,  three 
forms  of,  511. 

Institutions,  power  of,  61. 

Insurrections  in  Jamaica  due  to 
slavery,  153. 

Insurrectionary  States,  government 
of,  572.  Bill  for  the  government 
of,  607,  609,  611. 

Intemperance,  evil  of,  in  an  army, 
199. 

Irishmen,  conduct  of,  during  the 
rebellion,  470. 

JACKSON,  General :  controversy 
with  Mr.  Calhoun,  33.  Course 
of,  in  reference  to  nullification, 
68. 


Jamaica,  insurrections  in,  due  to 
slavery,  153. 

James  River:  its  importance  in  the 
campaign  against  Richmond,  208, 
260. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  address  on,  1. 
Political  opinions  of,  3.  Purity 
of  official  life,  4.  Ideas  of,  on 
American  Union,  6.  Plan  of,  for 
government  of  North-west  Terri 
tory,  47.  Proposal  of,  to  exclude 
slavery  from  the  Territory,  67. 
Opinions  of,  concerning  slavery 
in  St.  Domingo,  142.  In  favor 
of  emancipation  in  Virginia,  148. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  political  opinions 
of,  378.  Opinions  of,  concerning 
representation,  461.  Character 
of,  489,  491.  Opinions  and 
policy  of,  492,  505,  506.  Issue 
between,  and  Congress,  494,  500. 
Explanation  of  policy  of,  497. 
A  supporter  of  Southern  pol 
icy,  498.  Declaration  of,  con 
cerning  Congress,  504.  Con 
duct  of,  519.  Want  of  confi 
dence  in,  519.  His  betrayal  of 
the  North,  520.  Impeachment 
of,  531.  Responsibility  of,  for  the 
condition  of  the  South,  551.  The 
enemy  of  the  South,  559.  Effects 
of  policy  of,  576.  Conduct  of,  in 
reference  to  the  rebel  States,  601. 

Jurisdiction,  how  lost,  21. 

Justice  and  policy  in  public  affairs, 
609. 

KANSAS,  effect  of  repeal  of  Missouri 

Compromise  upon,  70. 
Kentucky,  conduct  of,  during  the 

rebellion,  344. 
King    of    Great    Britain,    charges 

against,  by  the  colonists,  5. 
King  Philip's  War:   its  example, 

122. 

LABORERS,  security  of  the  rights  of, 
401. 

Lee  and  Davis,  punishment  of,  399. 

Legislative  power:  its  basis,  28. 

Liberty  a  right,  and  not  a  privi 
lege,  111. 

Lincoln,  Abraham :  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  his  inauguration,  75.  In 
expediency  of  compromise  to 
secure  inauguration  of,  76.  In 
auguration  of.  prior  to  any 
compromise,  86.  Proclamation 
of,  calling  for  volunteers,  102. 


INDEX. 


623 


Characteristics  of,  125.  Eulogy 
on,  356.  Intellectual  ability  of, 
358.  Principles  of  his  adminis 
tration,  360.  His  opposition  to 
slavery,  362.  Moral  character 
of,  363.  Courage  of,  366.  His 
position  in  history,  367.  Assas 
sination  of,  370.  Ambition  of, 
534.  Policy  of,  in  reference  to 
the  restoration  of  the  Union,  546. 
Eifect  of  his  death  upon  the 
South,  560.  Temporary  gov 
ernment  in  Louisiana  established 
by,  584. 

Loan,  foreign,  expediency  of,  280. 
Bill  and  currency,  448. 

Louisiana :  her  course  in  the  rebel 
lion,  98.  Policy  of  the  President 
in,  300.  Bill  for  the  restoration 
of  government  in,  577.  Tempo 
rary  government  in,  584.  Bill  for 
the  admission  of,  593. 

Loyal  men  in  the  rebel  States,  how 
to  be  treated,  215. 

Loyalists  of  the  South  to  be  pro 
tected,  519. 

Loyalty,  evidence  of,  446.  In  the 
South  to  be  cherished,  602.  ^ 

MADISON,  JAMES,  course  of,  con 
cerning  abolition  of  slave-trade, 
42.  Opinions  of,  concerning  con 
fiscation,  245. 

Maryland,  inequalities  of  its  politi 
cal  system,  288.  Value  of  slaves 
in,  291.  Responsibility  of,  for 
the  rebellion,  292.  Importance 
of  the  black  people  to  the  pros 
perity  of,  297.  Natural  advan 
tages  of,  298.  Election  in,  510. 
Its  resources,  554. 

Massachusetts,  course  of,  in  refer 
ence  to  abolition  of  slave-trade,  40 ; 
charter  of,  46 ;  investments  of,  in 
railways,  54 ;  her  opinions  in  ref 
erence  to  slavery,  89;  policy  of, 
in  regard  to  the  rebellion,  175; 
equality  of  men  in,  294 ;  number 
and  character  of  public  schools 
in,  295;  conscription  act  of,  1693, 
332 ;  policy  of,  in  raising  supplies 
for  the  war,  332 ;  qualifications  of 
voters  in,  417 ;  election  of  negroes 
to  office  in,  521;  its  resources, 
554. 

Mexican  war,  influence  of,  in  favor 
of  secession,  69. 

Mexico,  Gulf  of,  the  trade  of  the. 
81. 


Mexico,  our  policy  in  reference  to, 

558. 

Migration  of  negroes,  151. 
Military  force,   duty  of    the    free 

States  to  organize  a,  76. 
Military  government,  character  of, 

in  rebel  States,  581. 
Military   officers,   duties   of,   under 

Reconstruction  Act,  589. 
Mineral  wealth  of  the  country,  232. 
Mississippi  River :  its  importance  in 

military  operations,  203. 
Missouri  Compromise,  repeal  of,  70. 
Mobile  Bay  and  Atlanta,  battles  of, 

347. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  views  of,  in  re 
gard  to  slave-trade,  41. 

NAPOLEON,  American  policy  of,  193. 

"Nasby,"  509. 

National  Government,  relation  of, 
to  State  governments,  79,  311. 

Negroes,  migration  of,  151;  employ 
ment  of,  as  soldiers,  226 ;  policy 
of  the  Democrats  in  employing, 
in  the  army,  227;  the  future  of 
'  the,  on  this  continent,  227 ;  capa 
city  of,  296 ;  loyalty  of,  323,  398 ; 
misrepresentations  concerning 
the,  in  the  British  West  Indies, 
325;  services  of  the,  in  prosecu 
ting  the  war,  337;  political  infe 
riority  of  the,  380 ;  fidelity  of  the, 
to  the  Union,  394 ;  control  of  the, 
by  their  former  masters,  396 ;  in 
famy  of  abandoning  the,  404; 
their  enfranchisement  a  necessity, 
424;  pledges  of  the  Government 
to  the,  438 ;  conduct  of  the,  during 
the  war,  440 ;  enfranchisement  of, 
480;  the  future  of  the,  in  the 
United  States,  484;  election  of, 
to  office  in  Massachusetts,  521. 

Negro  suffrage,  effects  of,  upon 
the  strength  of  the  Government, 
525 ;  effect  of,  upon  the  policy  of 
the  South,  527. 

Negro  troops,  organization  of,  229. 

Negro,  equality  of  the,  468. 

New  York,  charter  of,  46. 

New-York  election  of  1862,  180. 

New  York,  influence  of,  in  suppress 
ing  the  rebellion,  184;  city  of,  its 
interests  in  the  preservation  of 
the  Union,  185. 

North  and  South  compared,  67 ;  re 
sources  of  the,  compared,  554. 

North,  opinions  of  the,  concerning 
the  rights  of  the  States,  35.  Pur- 


624 


INDEX. 


poses  of  the  people  of  the,  66. 
Resources  of  the,  190.  Successes 
of  the,  191.  Danger  of  the  ex 
haustion  of  the,  225. 

North  Carolina,  conduct  of,  in  the 
rebellion,  100. 

Nullification,  course  of  General 
Jackson  in  reference  to,  68. 

OATH,  test,  for  attorneys,  562. 

Officers,  accountability  of,  200. 

Oligarchy,  object  of  the  secession 
ists  to  establish  an,  85,  133. 

Ordinance  of  1787,  45. 

Otis,  James,  speech  of,  against  the 
writs  of  assistance,  7. 

PACIFIC  RAILWAY,  effect  of  the, 
73. 

Paper  mone3r,  circulation  of,  to  be 
reduced,  279. 

Pardon  of  president,  effect  of,  567. 

Peace  Congress,  speech  in  the,  88 ; 
conduct  of  the  rebels  in  the,  220. 

People,  rights  of  the.  in  the  territo 
ries,  16 ;  right  of,  to  legislate,  22. 

Personal  equality  and  public  pros 
perity,  285. 

Pickens,  Governor,  of  South  Caro 
lina,  inaugural  address  of,  74. 

Pinckney,  Charles,  opinion  of,  on 
slave-trade,  38. 

Plan  of  the  campaign  of  1863,  214. 

Pledges  of  the  Government  to  be 
kept,  271. 

Poland,  partition  of,  512. 

Policy  of  the  rebels  in  1861,  220. 

Policy  and  justice  in  public  affairs, 
509. 

Political  rights  never  conceded  to 
inferior  classes,  402. 

Popular  sovereignty,  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  on,  9. 

Potomac,  Army  of  the,  206. 

Poverty  of  slave  States,  305. 

Presidency,  aspirations  for  the,  dan 
ger  of,  534. 

President,  election  of,  by  the  House 
of  Representatives,  30.  Powers 
of  the,  235. 

President's  pardon,  effect  of,  567. 

Proclamation  of  President  Lincoln 
calling  for  volunteers,  102. 

Proclamation  of  Emancipation,  ef 
fect  of,  upon  the  foreign  relations 
of  the  United  States,  192.  And 
enrolment  of  troops,  330.  Char 
acter  of,  361. 

Products  of  the  South,  48. 


RAILWAYS,  importance  of,  in  mili 
tary  operations,  205. 

Rebellion,  duty  of  the  General  Gov 
ernment  to  suppress  the,  79. 
Character  of,  95.  Of  tyrants,  97. 
Conduct  of  the  loyal  States  in  ref 
erence  to  the,  103.  Cost  of  sup 
pressing  the,  103.  Slavery  the 
cause  of  the,  104.  Change  of  in 
stitutions  essential  to  its  suppres 
sion,  118.  War  not  the  only 
means  for  suppressing  a,  119. 
Emancipation  the  only  means 
for  suppressing  the,  120.  The 
condition  of  the  States  engaged 
in  the,  128.  The  delusion  in  re 
lation  to  the,  131.  Causes  of  the, 
132.  Influence  of  northern  Dem 
ocrats  in  promoting  the,  133. 
Pretexts  for,  133.  Bankruptcy  of 
the  South  an  inducement  to,  134. 
The  slave-trade  an  inducement 
to*  135.  Ability  of  the  South  to 
continue  the,  136.  Means  for  the 
suppression  of  the,  138.  Nature 
of  the,  157.  Sacrifices  necessary 
for  the  suppression  of  the,  158. 
,The,  promoted  by  insecurity  of 
slaveholders,  166.  Promoted  by 
growth  of  the  free  States,  167. 
Military  and  naval  means  alone 
inadequate  for  suppressing  the, 
172.  The,  justifies  emancipa 
tion,  173.  The  suppression  of  the, 
interesting  to  all  mankind,  186. 
Responsibility  of  England  for  the, 
188.  The  success  of  the,  impos 
sible,  190.  Power  of  the  Govern 
ment  to  suppress  the,  216. 
Causes  of  the,  217.  Responsi 
bility  of  Maryland  for  the,  292. 
Conduct  of  Kentucky  during  the, 
344.  Danger  of,  in  Tennessee, 
482. 

Rebels,  policy  of,  in  1861,  220. 
Pardon  of  the,  by  the  President, 
406.  Terms  of  adjustment  with, 
406.  Punishment  of  the,  469. 
Power  of,  in  the  work  of  reorgan 
ization,  594.  Surrender  of  rebel 
States  to,  601. 

Rebel  property,  confiscation  of,  239. 

Rebel  States/unanimity  of  opinion 
in  the,  160.  Cannot  return  to  the 
Union  as  slave  States,  222. 
Rights  of  the,  300.  Government 
of,  576.  Powers  of  Congress  in 
reference  to,  578.  Military  gov 
ernment  in,  581.  Powers  of  local 


INDEX. 


625 


tribunals  in,  584.  Writ  of  habeas 
corpus  in  the,  587.  Re-organiza 
tion  of.  should  be  confided  to 
loyal  men,  596.  Methods  of  re 
organizing,  597.  Government  of, 
59s.  Conduct  of  President  John 
son  in  reference  to,  601.  Bills  for 
the  goverment  of,  607,  609,  611. 

Reconstruction,  policy  of  the  Demo 
crats  concerning,  464.  Policy  of 
the  Union  party  concerning,  467. 
Basis  of,  515.  Rules  for,  516. 
Action  of  Congress  in  reference 
to,  517.  Its  relations  to  the  busi 
ness  of  the  country,  558. 

Reconstruction  Act,  duties  of  mili 
tary  officers  under,  589. 

Representation,  inequality  of,  be 
tween  free  and  rebel  States,  391. 
Constitutional  amendment  for 
equalizing,  456.  Policy  of  the 
Democratic  party  concerning 
equality  of,  457.  Impossible  in 
the  absence  of  State  organization, 
466.  Opinions  of  A.  II.  Stephens 
concerning  490.  Opinions  of  Jef 
ferson  Davis  concerning,  490. 

Republicanism,  17. 

"Republican  lorun  of  government," 
meaning  of  the  phrase,  317,  386. 

Republican  institutions,  181. 

Republican  party,  success  of,  bene 
ficial  to  the  South,  57.  Triumph 
of,  secured  by  secession  leaders, 
74  Position  of,  499.  Future  of, 
536. 

Repudiation.  555,  556. 

Resources  of  South  and  North  com 
pared,  554. 

Restoration  of  the  Union,  resolu 
tions  concerning,  327. 

Resumption  of  specie  payments,  556. 

Revolution  of  1776,  war  of,  against 
the  people  and  Parliament  of 
Great  Britain,  20.  Character  of, 
183.  Issues  involved  in  the,  247. 

Rhode  Island,  decision  of  the  Su 
preme  Court  in  reference  to  the 
rebellion  in,  317. 

Richmond,  importance  of  the  James 
River  in  the  campaign  against, 
208.  Suggestions  concerning  its 
captrre,  212.  Its  importance, 
256.  Obstacles  in  the  way  of  its 
capture  by  land,  258. 

Rights  of  the  rebel  States,  300. 

Rights  of  laborers,  security  of  the, 
401. 

Russia,  American  policy  of,  193. 


ST.  DOMINGO,  opinions  of  Thomas 
Jefferson  concerning  slavery  in, 
142. 

Saxton,  General  Rufus,  opinions  of, 
upon  the  condition  of  the  South, 
524. 

Schools  in  Barbadoes  and  Antigua, 
145. 

Schools,  public,  number  and  char 
acter  of,  in  Massachusetts,  295. 

Secession,  address  upon,  61.  In 
fluence  of  Mexican  War  in  favor 
of,  69.  Influence  of,  under  Fugi 
tive-slave  Law,  69.  Extent  of,  in 
January,  1861,  74.  Not  a  con 
stitutional  right,  78.  Policy  of 
the  leaders  in,  78.  Agency  of 
South  Carolina  in,  79.  Tends  to 
servile  war,  84.  Its  effects  upon 
slavery,  85.  Peaceful,  impossible, 
85. 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  power 
of  the,  to  reduce  the  currency, 
454. 

Seddons,  Mr.,  of  Virginia,  views  ot, 
concerning  the  rights  of  States?, 
107. 

Servile  war,  secession  tends  to,  84. 

Seward,  W.  H.,  509. 

Slaveholders,  purpose  of,  62.     Hos- 

•  tile  to  the  Union,  109.  Plans  of, 
141.  Apprehensions  of  the,  168. 
Race  of,  to  be  exterminated,  183. 

Slavery  the  enemy  of  the  free  la 
borer,  26.  Despotism  of,  51. 
Exclusion  of,  from  territories, 
56.  Source  of  national  troubles, 
65.  Extension  of,  to  the  terri 
tories,  66.  Recognized  in  the 
Constitution,  66.  Exclusion  of, 
from  the  territories,  67.  Effects 
of  secession  upon.  85.  Opinions 
of  Massachusetts  in  reference  to, 
89.  The  cause  of  the  rebellion, 

104.  Its   extent   and   influence,, 

105.  Its  continuance  strengthens 
the  South,  137.     Insurrections  in 
Jamaica   due   to,    153.     May   be 
abolished     by    the    rebels,  "  154. 
The  cause  of  the  rebellion,  16-1. 
The  framers  of  the  Constitution 
opposed  to,  165.     The  source  of 
national  peril,  171.     Treason  the 
fruit  of,    175.    Responsibility   of, 
for  national    sacrifices,    178'.      A 
system  of  political  despotism,  285. 
Responsible    for    the    war,    304 
Abolition  of,  necessary  to  peace, 
333.    Its  effect  upon  the  Union, 


40 


626 


INDEX. 


514.  Influence  of,  upon  popula 
tion,  542.  Effect  of,  upon  the 
South,  554.  The  means  by 
which  it  was  overthrown,  422. 

Slaves:  by  whom  imported,  43. 
Number  of,  imported  from  1787 
to  1808,  43.  Value  of,  imported 
from  1787  to  1808,  44.  Expense 
of  clothing,  49.  Condition  and 
purposes  of  the,  58. 

Slave  States  not  prosperous,  50. 
Rebel  States  cannot  return  to  the 
Union  as,  222.  Constitution  of 
United  States  never  satisfactory 
to  the,  106.  Poverty  of,  305. 

Slave-trade,  Convention  of  1787  in 
relation  to,  37.  Georgia  and 
South  Carolina  favor  the,  37. 
Opinions  of  Charles  Pincknev 
on,  38.  Arguments  of  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia  against,  39. 
Course  of  Massachusetts  in  refer 
ence  to  abolition  of,  40.  Views  of 
Gouverneur  Morris  in  relation  to, 
41.  Course  of  James  Madison 
concerning  abolition  of,  42.  A  de 
sire  to  re-open  the,  an  inducement 
to  rebellion,  135. 

Soldiers,  capacity  of  the  States  to 
furnish.  136.  Professional,  197. 

South  and  North  compared,  67,  554. 

South,  hostility  of  the,  to  the 
Union,  33.  Effect  of  the  census 
upon  the  opinion  of  the,  68. 
Purpose  of  the,  to  construct  an 
empire,  74.  Products  of  the,  48. 
Regeneration  of,  by  the  people  of 
the  North,  185.  Claims  of,  for 
losses  sustained  during  the  war, 
435.  Opinions  of,  concerning 
universal  suffrage,  437.  Secret 
hostile  organizations  in  the,  443. 
Effects  of  universal  suffrage  upon 
the,  524.  Public  sentiment  in, 
627.  Power  of  Congress  over 
the,  529.  Social  condition  of,  552. 
Effect  of  President  Lincoln's 
death  upon  the  fortunes  of,  560. 

Southern  States  cannot  form  a 
Union,  85. 

South  Carolina  favors  the  slave- 
trade,  37.  Argument  of,  against 
the  abolition  of  slave-trade,  37. 
Agency  of,  in  secession,  79. 
Conduct  of,  in  the  rebellion,  100. 
Emancipation  in,  140.  Effect  of 
her  ordinance  of  secession,  384. 
Condition  of,  after  subjugation, 
884. 


Southern  clergy,  opinions  of  the, 
132. 

Southern  officers,  treason  of,  96. 

Sovereignty,  popular,  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  on,  9. 

Sovereignty  of  the  people  of  the 
territories,  limitations  of,  22. 

Specie  payments,  resumption  of, 
556. 

Speculation,  uncertainty  the  chief 
element  of,  271. 

State,  a,  how  created,  383.  A,  how 
destroyed,  383.  Governments, 
relation  of,  to  national  govern 
ments,  79. 

"  State  rights,"  403. 

States,  right  of  people  of  territories 
to  form,  24.  Theory  of  J.  C. 
Calhoun  concerning  the  rights  of, 
79.  Force,  the  last  resort  of,  87. 
The  condition  of  the,  engaged  ia 
the  rebellion,  128.  Rebel,  una 
nimity  of  opinion  in  the,  160. 
Rebellious,  constitutional  rela 
tions  of  the,  to  the  Union,  312. 
Rebel,  violation  of  the  Constitu 
tion  by  the,  313.  Admission  of 
new,  315.  Rebel,  governments 
in,  not  legal,  530.  Unrepresented, 
population  of,  540.  '  Unrepre 
sented,  area  of,  540.  Insurrec 
tionary,  government  of,  572. 

Stephens,  A.  H.,  opinions  of,  con 
cerning  amendments  to  the  Con 
stitution,  462.  Testimony  of, 
490,  504. 

Stockton,  Mr.,  of  New  Jersey,  speech 
of,  in  the  Peace  Congress,  307. 

Storv,  Judge,  authority  of,  245. 

Suffrage,  universal,  importance  of, 
389. 

Suffrage,  a  natural  right,  409.  Uni 
versal,  renders  a  government 
strong,  421.  In  the  District 
of  Columbia,  427.  Qualifica 
tions  for,  429.  Its  influence 
upon  the  fortunes  of  a  country, 
433.  Restricted,  dangers  of,  435. 
Effects  of,  524.  Opinions  of  An 
drew  Johnson  concerning,  524. 

Suffrage,  negro,  effects  of,  upon 
the  Government,  525.  Disloyal 
whites  to  enjoy  the  right  of, 
528.  Universal,  no  opposition 
to,  567. 

Suggestions  concerning  the  future 
prosecution  of  the  war,  189. 

Suppression  of  the  rebellion,  means 
for  the,  138. 


INDEX. 


627 


Supreme  Court,  opinion  of,  in  case 
of  Dred  Scott,  72.  Decision  of 
the,  in  relation  to  the  rebel  States, 
388.  Powers  of,  in  reference  to 
its  rules,  568.  Action  of,  in  refer 
ence  to  rebel  States,  578. 

Swann,  Governor,  conduct  of,  510. 


TAXATION,  power  of  Parliament  to 
tax  American  Colonies,  18. 
Limit  to,  83. 

Tennessee,  report  on  the  admission 
of,  442.  Political  opinions  of  the 
people  of,  442.  Adult  male  citi 
zens  of,  443.  Extension  of  the 
elective  franchise  in,  443.  Ad 
mission  of,  477.  Ratification  of 
constitutional  amendments  by, 
478.  Government  of,  not  repub 
lican,  479.  Danger  of  rebellion 
in,  482. 

Territory,  acquisition  of,  20.  Right 
of  Government  to  acquire,  23. 
Action  of  Virginia  in  reference  to 
North-western,  44.  North-west 
ern,  claims  to,  45.  North-west 
ern,  deed  of  cession  by  Virginia, 
45.  Restrictions  on  the  acquisi 
tions  of,  91.  North  opposed  to 
restrictions  upon  acquisitions  of, 
91.  Rights  of,  315. 

Territories,  power  of  Congress  in 
the,  11.  Constitution  does  not 
extend  to,  12.  Rights  of  the 
people  of,  16.  Right  of,  to  legis 
late  for,  20.  Right  of  people  to 
legislate,  22.  Limitations  upon 
the  sovereignty  of  people  of,  22. 
Right  of  people  of,  to  form  State 
governments,  24.  Relation  of,  to 
the  Union,  25.  Exclusion  of 
slavery  from,  56.  Extension  of 
slavery  to,  66.  Proposal  of 
Thomas  Jefferson  to  exclude 
slavery  from  the,  67. 

Test  oath,  bill  providing  for  a, 
562.  Speech  upon,  563. 

Texas,  annexation  of,  68.  Con 
duct  of,  in  the  rebellion,  99. 
Emancipation  in,  141. 

Thomas,  General  George  H.,  opin 
ions  of,  upon  the  condition  of  the 
South,  525. 

Traitors  in  the  Cabinet  of  President 
Buchanan,  63.  Allies  of  the, 
conduct  of,  351. 

Treason,  the  fruit  of  slavery,  175. 
Attainder  of,  provision  of  the  Con 


stitution  concerning,  246.  Stat 
ute  of  5th  Elizabeth,  concerning 
treason,  249.  Forfeiture  for,  250. 

Treaty  of  1783,  46. 

Treaty  of  peace  with  rebels,  inex 
pediency  of,  333. 

Troops,  enrolment  of,  and  Procla 
mation  of  Emancipation,  330. 

Twiggs,  General,  treason  of,  96. 

Tyrants,  rebellion  of,  97. 


UNION,  dissolution  of,  argument  for 
the,  50.  Conspiracy  against  the. 
62.  The,  to  be  maintained  by 
force,  80.  Considerations  which 
tend  to  its  preservation,  "80. 
Theory  of  the  writers  in  the 
"  Federalist,"  concerning  the, 
80.  The  effects  of  the  dissolution 
of  the,  81.  Southern  States  can 
not  form  a,  85.  The  way  in 
which  it  may  be  preserved,  93. 
The,  to  be  maintained  by  force, 
93.  Dissolution  of  the,  impossi 
ble,  112.  The,  older  than  the 
Constitution,  113.  The  necessity 
of  the  country  for,  161.  Recon 
struction  of  the,  without  the 
abolition  of  slavery  impossible, 
177.  The  supporters  of  slavery 
the  enemies  of  the,  228.  Restora 
tion  of,  to  its  former  condition 
impossible,  230.  Restoration  of, 
on  the  basis  of  freedom,  309. 
Restoration  of,  on  a  republican 
basis,  319.  Restoration  of  the, 
resolutions  concerning,  327. 
Reconstruction  of,  372.  Consti 
tutional  relation  of  the  rebellious 
States  to  the,  382.  From  1820  to 
1860,  515.  Means  of  restoring 
the,  544.  Conduct  of  President 
Johnson  in  reference  to  the  resto- 
ation  of  the,  545.  Conditions 
precedent  to  the  restoration  of 
the,  547. 

United  States,  boundaries  of.  by 
treaty  of  1783,  46.  Debt  of,  '187. 
Credit  of,  187.  Means  for  pay 
ing  the  debt  of  the,  233.  Ca 
pacity  of,  to  pay  its  debt,  282. 
Power  of,  over  the  rebel  States, 
314.  Position  of,  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  376.  Au 
thority  of  the,  over  the  rebellious 
States,  386.  1  he,  not  a  "  white 
man's  country,"  425.  Foreign 
policy  of,  558. 


628 


INDEX. 


Universal  suffrage,  importance  of, 

389. 
Usurpation,  the,  489. 

VIRGINIA,  action  of,  in  reference 
to  North-west  Territory,  44. 
Deed  of  cession  of  North-west 
Territory,  45.  Charter  of,  46. 
Course  of,  in  reference  to  slavery 
in  North-west  Territory,  48. 
Natural  advantages  of,  53.  Debt 
of,  53.  Railways  of,  54.  Com 
merce  of,  55.  Conduct  of,  in  call 
ing  the  Peace  Congress,  t8. 
Conduct  of,  in  the  rebellion,  100. 
Delegates  from,  in  the  Peace 
Congress,  101.  Financial  condi 
tion  of,  101.  Thomas  Jefferson 
in  favor  of  emancipation  in,  148. 
Debt  of,  555. 

Volunteers,  first  call  for,  361. 

Voting,  right  of,  limitation  of,  to 
white  male  citizens,  321.  Nature 
of  the  right  of,  431.  Reading  as  a 
qualification,  418. 

WADSWORTH,  General,  180. 


War  of  the  Revolution  against  the 
people  and  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain,  20. 

War,  suggestions  concerning  the 
further  prosecution  of  the,  "189. 
Foreign,  danger  of,  194.  How 
far  a  science,  198.  Conduct  of 
the,  255.  Slavery  responsible  for 
the,  304.  Democrats,  responsi 
bility  of,  for  the,  310.  Civil,  159. 

Washington,  General,  conduct  of, 
in  reference  to  fugitive  slaves, 
69. 

Washington,  means  of  protecting 
the  city  of,  206. 

Wealth,  mineral,  of  the  country, 
232. 

"  White  man's  country,"  the  United 
States  not  a,  425. 

Wise,  H.  A.,  declaration  of,  in  1860, 
34. 

Writ  of  habeas  corpus,  suspension 
of  the  privilege  of  the,  in  rebel 
States,  587. 

YANCEY,  WILLIAM  L.,  speech  of, 
in  Massachusetts,  in  1860,  36. 


THE     END. 


Cambridge  :  Stereotyped  and  Printed  by  John  Wilson  and  Son. 


NO' 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 

Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


J.CAf 


* 


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